Iran begins Operation Before Dawn in the Musian sector

The campaign produced only small gains at heavy cost. Its outcome illustrated the growing difficulty Iran faced in attacking prepared Iraqi defenses and the widening gap between revolutionary...

Iran held its first election for the Assembly of Experts responsible for leadership selection and oversight. This was a different institution from the assembly that drafted the 1979 Constitution.

Resolution 37/98 D requested investigations of possible Geneva Protocol violations, expert and laboratory lists, and procedures for prompt evidence collection. Iran later invoked this authority.

Khomeini directed judicial and executive officials to respect legal safeguards against arbitrary arrest, confiscation and intrusion. The wartime decree expressed rules for state conduct; it did not...

Iran reported Iraqi long-range missiles hitting populated areas of Dezful. The attack underscored the continuing vulnerability of Khuzestan’s cities after major Iranian battlefield gains.

The offensive in the Musian area concluded without achieving its principal objective. Iran continued to mobilize volunteers and conduct repeated offensives, while Iraq increasingly relied on defensive...

Iran’s ambassador later identified 2 March as the date of an Iraqi attack on offshore oil wells. The damaged Nowruz facilities became a major pollution and repair crisis.

Iran’s delegation said it would continue the war despite Indira Gandhi’s appeal for peace. Competing Iranian and Iraqi demands complicated the Non-Aligned summit.

Iran demanded that Iraq apologize for bombing its oil wells. Both countries had agreed to attend pollution talks but had not accepted a ceasefire for repairs.

Iran began a central-front offensive near Amara. It was one of several 1983 operations that attempted to penetrate Iraqi territory but made no decisive change to the front, adding to the war’s...