![]() Iraq was also a secular state that came into confrontation with the ideals of an Islamic state like the Iranian government. Saddam Hussein and his Sunni sect seemed at odds with the Ayatollah Khomeini by dealing with the godless Soviet Union. Iraq was also a target, since it had subjugated its Islamic Shiite sect majority Shiite members dominated Iran. This same country had supported the former corrupt Iranian government until the revolution. The fundamentalist Islamic Iranians viewed the Saudi monarchy as a decadent group that had betrayed Islam by its continued dealings with the “Great Satan,” the United States and the rest of the West. Iran tried to export its revolutionary movement west into Saudi Arabia to wrest control over many holy Muslim religious sites. One of the goals of the Iranian government was to transform other nations’ governments and societies around the region to mirror its image. Although the United States gained release of these hostages, the effect was chilling for many nations around the Persian Gulf. Tehran illustrated clearly its focus on removing Western influence by seizing the U. Islamic fundamentalists had created a revolutionary government intent on creating a state that would replace many non-Muslim influences with their fundamentalist Muslim thought and philosophy. Iranian revolutionaries had overthrown a government friendly toward the United States and the West in January 1979. At the end of the conflict, some experts claimed that the two Islamic countries exchanged over several hundred ballistic missile attacks. These problems erupted between Iran and Iraq in 1980. Other concerns involved economic ones, influence over oil fields and their potential wealth. Ancient claims over territory did not distinguish between countries that were Arabic, Persian, or Israeli. Different Islamic sects vied for control over nations. Tensions between secular governments and others, dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, spilled over borders. However, the picture of a unified Islamic world against Israel was not clear. In the late twentieth century, Middle Eastern conflicts had normally revolved around the Arab world and Israel. ![]() Iraq would use its missiles against Iran and would later use them against the United States. Two nations that acquired these systems were Iran and Iraq, traditional enemies, but both supported through arms sales by the Soviet Union. ![]() The Soviet Union and other countries sold technologies and complete systems to bolster client states and earn hard currency from foreign military sales. ![]() These weapons also became a symbol of national pride so that their mere existence allowed states to demonstrate their resolve in the face of regional disputes or to gain domestic cohesion in the guise of protecting the nation. Unfortunately, other nations had witnessed how these weapons provided an avenue to strike strategically and to coerce or affect a rival’s behavior. Although the two nations continued to build weapons, the countries agreed to reduce certain types and quantities of nuclear weapons, along with ballistic missiles ranging from the MRBM to a number of ICBMs. ![]() The United States and Soviet Union backed away from a nuclear showdown with the Cuba Missile Crisis. Al-Hussein missiles displayed in their erector-launchers. ![]()
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