Forty-three years after the start of the Iran-Iraq war, and 35 years after its end, the deep wounds it inflicted on the lives and souls of Iran and the Iranian people still persists.
This festering wound and accumulated anger from the war occasionally resurfaces in the form of confessions in the regime’s media. Mohammad Javad Mozaffar, the director of foreign media during the war, recently made unprecedented confessions about it. He admitted to the responsibility of the regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other authorities in laying the groundwork for the war. He said, “On April 17, 1980, suddenly Khomeini] came and delivered a message, ‘O Iraqi tribes, rise up and overthrow this man! O Iraqi army, carry out a coup and overthrow the president of this country!’ When? April 17, 1980, five months before the start of the war.”
The director of foreign media during the war added, “Based on a false analysis, the ruling regime embraced the war. This was a mistake and an error that was committed; it was as if with our slogans, provocations, and actions, we were pushing him towards war. Indeed, the perception of Khomeini and the leaders of the regime was that if the people of Iraq yearned it, they could overthrow Saddam!”
Regarding Khomeini’s insistence on continuing the war after Iraq’s retreat from all Iranian territories, Mohammad Javad Mozaffar said, “We chose the wrong slogan; ‘War, war until victory, the path to Quds [Jerusalem] passes through Karbala.’ Even worse than that, ‘War, war until the eradication of sedition in the world!’… What should the slogan have been? The slogan should have been ‘War, war until Saddam’s withdrawal from all Iranian lands,’ which would have made it a defensive war.”
This rare admission from a regime authority is another indicator that while the regime celebrates the war as “sacred defense,” it was indeed on the full offensive to use the war as an excuse to suppress dissidents at home.
Referring to consecutive defeats in the final years of the war and the emptiness of the fronts, the Director of Foreign Media during the war said, “In April 1986, senior officials went to Khomeini and delivered messages from regional countries to him. Their message was that they were willing to bear the damages of the war [if Khomeini ends the war], but Khomeini said that anyone who is tired of the war can leave!”
It is not the first time that regime officials make such admissions, especially after the bitter taste of the ceasefire. These contradictions escalated to the point that even at the highest levels of the regime, Khomeini himself intervened and silenced them severely.
On September 25t, the state-run Hammihan newspaper wrote in its editorial, “A different phase has emerged from the period of war with Iraq, and perspectives towards the war have changed. When the occupied soil of Iran was liberated, the leaders of the regime, after various discussions, ultimately decided to continue operations on Iraqi soil.”
The question is why these issues are being raised now, 35 years after the end of the war. The answer is that the regime has been significantly weakened after the 2022 uprising. As a result, the reopening of these rifts is due to the unresolved wounds of the war and the deepening of these divisions.
The day after withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Iran, the Iranian resistance announced that Khomeini no longer has excuses for continuing the war with Iraq. This was a he created under the slogan of exporting his so-called revolution to cover up the inefficiencies and crimes of his regime. The regime also took advantage of the war for domestic repression and to force the masses to remain silent toward its crimes and mismanagement of the country.
