Highs and lows of bilateral relations in past 30 years

Iran-Iraq War:

September 1980: Iraq accused Iran of shelling Iraqi border towns from territory belonging to Baghdad under the 1975 Algiers accord on the frontier line and Shatt al-Arab waterway. Saddam Hussein tore up the accord and his troops invaded Iran.

March 1988: Iran seized the town of Halabja in northeast Iraq. Teheran said Iraq used chemical weapons to punish inhabitants for not resisting. About 5,000 people were killed.

August 1988: The Middle East's longest armed conflict in modern times ended with a UN-sponsored ceasefire. About one million people were killed in a conflict which involved trench warfare, chemical attacks and mass Iranian frontal assaults.

Gulf War:

August 1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait. Days later Saddam told Iran he would withdraw from occupied Iranian territory and formally settle the 1980-88 war.

January 1991: Iraq flew more than 140 aircraft to Iran to avoid their destruction before a US-led attack to force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

Improving ties

1998: Iran's moderate president, Mohammad Khatami, broke a logjam in ties, leading to swapping more prisoners from the 1980-88 war and relaunching pilgrimages by Iranians to holy Shi'ite Muslim sites in Iraq.

2003: Iran-Iraq ties improve after Saddam was toppled. An Iraqi government led by Shi'ite Muslims came to power. Iran is a Shi'ite nation.

The US military has accused Iran of stoking violence in Iraq by funding, training and equipping militias. Iran denies this, blaming the presence of US troops for the violence.

More recently Iran may have used its influence with Iraqi Shi'ite militias to help reduce violence. Iraq has also credited Teheran with helping to rein in the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/03/2008 page6)