Ba'athist Iraq

Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. This period began with high economic growth, but ended with the country facing severe levels of socio-political isolation and economic stagnation. By the late 1990s, the average annual income had decreased drastically due to a combination of external and internal factors. UNSC sanctions against Iraq, in particular, were widely criticized for negatively impacting the country's quality of life, prompting the establishment of the Oil-for-Food Programme. The Ba'athist period formally came to an end with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the Ba'ath Party has since been indefinitely banned across the country. Led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the Ba'ath Party came to power in Iraq through the bloodless 17 July 1968 Revolution, which overthrew Iraqi president Abdul Rahman Arif and Iraqi prime minister Tahir Yahya. The Ba'athists had previously assumed power for a brief period after the 8 February 1963 Revolution, but were forced into exile by Nasserists within their ranks following the November 1963 coup d'état. By the mid-1970s, Saddam Hussein, through his post as chief of the party's intelligence services, became the country's leader, despite al-Bakr's presidency. Under Saddam's new policies, both the Iraqi economy and citizens' standard of living grew, and Iraq's standing within the Arab world increased significantly. As land reforms were introduced, the country's wealth was distributed on a more equal basis. However, several internal factors were imminently threatening Iraq's stability; the Ba'athist government, which was secular, Arab nationalist, and dominated by Sunni Muslims, was drawn into an escalating conflict with the religious separatism among Shia Muslims in the south and the ethnic separatism among Kurds in the north. The then-ongoing Second Iraqi–Kurdish War, in particular, was increasingly becoming a cause of great concern for the government, in light of the fact that Kurdish rebels were enjoying extensive support from Iran, Israel, and the United States. After the Iraqis suffered a major defeat to the Iranians in the 1974–1975 Shatt al-Arab clashes, Saddam met with Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and, with the ratification of the 1975 Algiers Agreement, ceded parts of Iraqi territory in exchange for Iran's termination of support for the Kurds.