1974–75 Shatt al-Arab conflict

1974–1975 Arvand River conflict
Part of the Arvand River dispute and the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
DateApril 1974 – March 1975
(11 months)
Location
Result

Iranian victory

  • 1975 Algiers Agreement
  • Iraq cedes half of the Arvand River to Iran
  • Iran cedes territory around Zain al Qaws and Saif Saad to Iraq
  • Iraqi government reinstates full control over Kurdish-majority territories
  • Tensions between Iran and Iraq escalate into a full-scale war in 1980
Territorial
changes
Iran consolidates control over the Shatt al-Arab along the Iran–Iraq border
Belligerents
Iran
KDP
Iraq
Commanders and leaders

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
(Shah of Iran)

Mustafa Barzani
Saddam Hussein
(Vice President of Iraq)
Strength
  • 50,000 irregulars
  • ~100 aircraft (min.)
  • 90,000 troops
  • 1,200 tanks and AFVs
  • 200 aircraft
Casualties and losses
1,000+ killed or wounded (total)

The 1974–1975 Shatt al-Arab conflict consisted of armed cross-border clashes between Iran and Iraq. It was a major escalation of the Shatt al-Arab dispute, which had begun in 1936 due to opposing territorial claims by both countries over the Shatt al-Arab, a transboundary river that runs partly along the Iran–Iraq border. The conflict took place between April 1974 and March 1975, and resulted in over 1,000 total casualties for both sides combined, though the Iranians eventually came to hold a strategic advantage over the Iraqis. Open hostilities formally came to an end with the 1975 Algiers Agreement, in which Iraq ceded around half of the border area containing the waterway in exchange for Iran's cessation of support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels.