The Supreme Leader-for-Life is suffering from some amnesia about the IRI's war with Iraq: Saddam bore the lion's share of blame for initiating hostilities and for the war until 1982. After the Iraqis had been driven out in 1982, Saddam offered a truce and (with help of the Persian Gulf Arab states) to pay $70 billion in reparations. The IRI refused and said that its aim was to march to Karbala and from there to Jerusalem ("rah-e Qods az Karbala migozarad"). The IRI, moreover, tried to conquer Basra but failed (most prominently during the Fao campaign near the war's end). It continued to refuse to end the war until 1988, when it finally agreed. The vast majority of deaths and destruction took place in the years 1982-1988.
The Supreme Leader-for-Life is suffering from some amnesia about the IRI's war with Iraq: Saddam bore the lion's share of blame for initiating hostilities and for the war until 1982. After the Iraqis had been driven out in 1982, Saddam offered a truce and (with help of the Persian Gulf Arab states) to pay $70 billion in reparations. The IRI refused and said that its aim was to march to Karbala and from there to Jerusalem ("rah-e Qods az Karbala migozarad"). The IRI, moreover, tried to conquer Basra but failed (most prominently during the Fao campaign near the war's end). It continued to refuse to end the war until 1988, when it finally agreed. The vast majority of deaths and destruction took place in the years 1982-1988.