.
The Kurds were a small democratic party that started their rebellion in Iraq. The main reason for this attack was to form autonomy within Iraq that would allow the Kurds to manage their own local affairs. Iraq was very hostile towards the Kurds and Iran because Iran was supportive of the Kurdish rebellion. The opposing views of each party led to the Kurdish rebellion. Dana Adams Schmidt described the dispute in the following sentences, " The more bitter the dispute over the Shatt, the more the Iranians allow arms and ammunition to slip over their border to the guerrillas of General Mustafa al-Barzani, the Kurdish leader, and the more the Iraqis vow to suppress the Kurds" (Abdulghani, 122). Iran used the Kurds as a weapon to weaken the Iraqi government. The Kurds were granted their autonomy in a memorandum called Manifesto on the Peaceful Settlement of the Kurdish Issue. The memorandum stated, "Iraq promised that the Kurds would be granted self-rule, to be exercised by a local administrative council and an elected legislative assembly" (Khadduri, 53). This treaty led to a significant crisis between the Kurds and the Ba th Party. The immense support the Kurds were receiving from Iran was a gateway for Iran to cause political chaos in the Iraqi government. Political officials in Iran found this, " to be an opportunity to engage Iraq in domestic turmoil by keeping the bulk of the Iraq army tied down in the north; in this way, Iran hoped to reduce Iraq's .
Gareau 3.
military and economic capabilities and ultimately to circumscribe her political options" (Abdulghani, 140). On March 11, 1974, Mulla Mustafa rejected the Kurdish self-rule and went to war with the regime. .
The war lasted less than a year and neither side predicted a quick and imminent defeat. The Soviet Union was the only support for the Iraq's and had been supplying them with their needed weaponry until they declared their neutrality in the war.
