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Who started the war in Iran
Executive summary
The question “Who started the war in Iran?” can point to different conflicts; the largest historically is the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), which began when Iraqi forces invaded Iran in September 1980 [1]. More recent fighting in 2025 between Israel, the United States and Iran — sometimes called the “12‑day war” — began with Israeli strikes on Iranian sites in mid‑June 2025 [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not mention a single, universally accepted “starter” because each conflict has different, contested origins and multiple actors with overlapping motives [5] [3].
1. The 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War: Saddam Hussein’s invasion and disputed motives
Major histories place the opening of large‑scale hostilities in September 1980 with an Iraqi invasion ordered by President Saddam Hussein, driven by border disputes (especially the Shatt al‑Arab), fears that Iran’s 1979 revolution would destabilize Iraq, and a desire to exploit perceived post‑revolutionary weakness in Tehran [1] [6] [7]. Encyclopedic and academic overviews emphasize a mix of territorial claims, sectarian and ideological fear of revolutionary spillover, and Saddam’s calculation that regional and Western actors might back Baghdad — factors that together explain why Iraq launched the attack [8] [5].
2. Iran’s counteroffensives and the argument that the war “continued” with Iranian offensives
Although Iraq initiated the invasion, Iran regained lost territory by mid‑1982 and then mounted offensives into Iraq that prolonged the conflict for years; some accounts note Iran’s later invasion of Iraqi territory and refusal of early UN ceasefire offers, complicating a simple “starter” narrative [1]. Academic sources frame the war as a prolonged exchange in which both sides committed major offensives after the initial Iraqi invasion, producing an eight‑year stalemate and heavy casualties [1] [8].
3. External sponsors, tacit backers and the international context
Contemporary and retrospective reporting underscores that regional states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab neighbors — openly financed Iraq’s war effort, while global powers offered tacit support to Baghdad in different ways; Western and Soviet roles matter for understanding how the war unfolded even if they did not directly “start” the fighting [8] [6]. Analysts warn that focusing only on who fired the first shot omits the wider diplomatic, financial and intelligence support networks that enabled prolonged conflict [8] [9].
4. The 2025 Israel–Iran “12‑day” war: who struck first in a different conflict
Reporting on the mid‑June 2025 exchange presents a different opening narrative: several sources state that the immediate spark was surprise Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military and nuclear facilities, after which Iran launched large missile and drone strikes in retaliation and the United States intervened with strikes of its own [2] [3] [4]. Brookings, The Times of Israel and other outlets chronicle a timeline in which Israel’s pre‑emptive framing and early strikes are described as the opening move in that episode [3] [4].
5. Competing narratives and political framing — who “started” versus who “escalated”
Who is named the aggressor depends on perspective: Iraqi initiation is widely cited for the 1980s war [1], while Israeli sources and allies describe the 2025 strikes as pre‑emptive against an existential threat; critics and some international observers emphasize that retaliatory strikes, prior provocations, or long‑running proxy campaigns also shaped the outbreak [4] [3]. Historical overviews and research‑starter pieces warn that motives and justifications are contested, and that state rhetoric often reflects strategic and domestic agendas rather than an uncontested legal truth [5] [9].
6. What the sources do and do not say — limits to a definitive answer
The supplied sources clearly identify Iraq’s 1980 invasion as the starting act of the Iran–Iraq War [1] and identify Israeli strikes in June 2025 as the opening of that year’s intensive exchange [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not produce a single, all‑purpose answer to “Who started the war in Iran?” because the question lacks a named conflict and because responsibility is framed differently across episodes and by different actors [10] [5]. If you mean a different specific conflict (for example, US‑Iran naval skirmishes, proxy wars, or other episodes), current reporting in the provided documents does not mention those cases — please specify which war you mean and I will analyze sources focused on that event (not found in current reporting).
If you want, I can: (a) produce a concise timeline showing the opening moves and key escalations for either the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88) or the 2025 Israel–Iran exchange; or (b) expand on how outside powers influenced each conflict’s outbreak and conduct using the same sources.