Iran-Iraq War compensations claims

Question

Recently an Iranian MP demanded the Iraqi government to pay Iran more than 1 trillion US dollars as damages for Iran-Iraq War. The MP based his claim on Article 6 of UN Resolution 598. I wonder if MP claim is really true ?

Answer 1

The only news in English about this was thin on specifics for the claim's basis:

Earlier this month, a member of the Majlis (the Iranian parliament), Eivaz Heidarpour, who is also a member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that Iran could claim compensation from Iraq amounting to $1 trillion."

Other members of the Iranian leadership publicly turned down the idea, as further detailed in that article.

But this week a senior member of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly has said that the time for addressing the issue of reparations relating to the Iraq-Iran war is over.

So it doesn't sound like a serious claim to investigate... although Iraqi leadership threatened counter-claims (probably to deter talk like Heidarpour's in the future).

Ali Alaq, the chief secretary of the Iraqi council of ministers told the Arabic Al-Sabah daily on Tuesday that if the Iranian authorities demanded compensation from the Iraqis for war damages, “which is an illogical request”, Iraq could also appeal for compensation from Iran.

Also the UN resolution 598 you mention says nothing about damages/reparations, although it encourages reconstruction (in article 7). The news piece in English doesn't mention the resolution at all. Article 6 is a masterpiece of not-really-gonna-happen, here's the text:

6. [The Security Council] Requests the Secretary-General to explore, in consultation with Iran and Iraq, the question of entrusting an impartial body with inquiring into responsibility for the conflict and to report to the Council as soon as possible;

Article 7 (the only one which mentions damage[s] and reconstruction, but says nothing about reparation):

7. [The Security Council] Recognizes the magnitude of the damage inflicted during the conflict and the need for reconstruction efforts, with appropriate international assistance, once the conflict is ended and, in this regard, request the Secretary-General to assign a team of experts to study the question of reconstruction and to report to the Council;

Also if you read Wikipedia's page on the war, there were no reparations authorised (or paid) unlike in the case of Iraq-Kuwait.