Culture Min: World should know Iran has never been warmonger, aggressive

Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini in a meeting with a number of the (Iraqi) Imposed War disabled veterans and chemical weapons victims Wednesday evening on the sidelines of a visit of the newly opened Peace Museum appreciated the organizers of the museum for the “great and invaluable move”, expressing their job as “very precious and beneficial.”

He reiterated, “Today’s generation are not familiar with the events and catastrophes related to the imposed war and the sacred defense, particularly with the vast usage of the enemies from the fatal chemical weapons, never having been exposed to them personally, which is why this exhibition provides a good and much needed opportunity for them to know about the criminal acts committed and realities of that war.”

Hosseini referred to the commemoration services held for the martyrs during each year, arguing, “Discussions on the Imposed War, and particularly those related to the enemy’s crimes and the ways they were committed against the innocent and defenseless civilian Iranians, or similar crimes committed against the other nations, which need to be narrated in such museums and in the framework of their cultural and artistic products.”

The head of the country’s General Culture Council reiterated, “The job has been clicked on and the work has great potential for expansion. Everyone must feel responsible in various parts of the executive apparatus in this respect and to spend efforts on their parts in this line.”

Hosseini reiterated, “The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, too, in its turn while emphasizing the need for preserving and reviving the works on Sacred Defense, feels responsibility in this respect and the ministry would promote the activity in various cultural and artistic field, such as book writing and compiling, film making, theatrical works, plastic arts, poetry etc.”

According to him, when work is coupled with arts it would become long lasting on the one hand and attractive on the other hand.

The Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister referred to the production of a number of films on Sacred Defense and their presence at this years’ International Fajr Film Festival, such as the one on biography of some wartime commanders, like Martyr Kaveh, reiterating, “Making a film on the 33-day resistance of the Lebanese nation and another one on the 22-day resistance of the Gazans is proof for the importance that this ministry attaches to resistance issue.”

Hosseini reiterated, “Meanwhile it has been reiterated that in production of other products in cultural and artistic fields, too, the issue of resistance should be paid due attention to.”

Member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council said that the library of the museum, too, has precious and useful books in the field of war, defense, peace and the enemies’ crimes in their usage of chemical and inhumane weapons, and… are good books, reiterating, “This section must be turned into a rich collection to include more books for the enthusiasts and the visitors.”

The Iran–Iraq War (also known as the Sacred Defense, the Iraqi-Imposed War, the First Persian Gulf War and by various other names) was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the 20th century. It was initially referred to in English as the 'Persian Gulf War' prior to the 'Gulf War' of 1990.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on September 22nd 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shi’a Islam insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shi’a majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution.

Iraq was also aiming to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of the revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and were quickly repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive.

Despite calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The war finally ended with a United Nations brokered ceasefire in the form of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which was accepted by both sides. It took several weeks for the Iranian armed forces to evacuate Iraqi territory to honor pre-war international borders between the two nations (see 1975 Algiers Agreement). The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003.

The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage—half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured—but it brought neither reparations nor change in borders. The conflict is often compared to World War I, in that the tactics used closely mirrored those of that conflict, including large scale trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches, human wave attacks across no-man's land, and extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas by the Iraqi government against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds. At the time, the UN Security Council issued statements that 'chemical weapons had been used in the war.' However, in these UN statements it was never made clear that it was only Iraq that was using chemical weapons, so it has been said that 'the international community remained silent as Iraq used weapons of mass destruction against Iranian as well as Iraqi Kurds.'

Courtesy: Wikipedia for the background on Iran-Iraq war

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