TEHRAN - Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has stated that the issue of obtaining war reparations from Iraq is being pursued by senior officials of the Islamic Republic.

“The issue of reparations is not an issue that can be forgotten, and we are following up on it, although the special circumstances Iraq is facing should also be taken into consideration,” Larijani told a group of families of war martyrs on Saturday.
When the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war began, the Islamic Republic came under a lot of international pressure, and the United States and Europe sided with Iraq and waged an imposed war against Iran, the parliament speaker noted.
The Mehr News Agency also talked to a number of other MPs to learn their views on the issue of war reparations.
MP Gholamreza Karami called for the assertion of the Iranian nation’s rights with respect to war reparations.
The issue of reparations should be pursued vigorously through international legal mechanisms and by presenting documentation, Karami, who is a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Saturday.
MP Seyyed Emad Hosseini says that the Islamic Republic will consider it a disrespectful act if Iraq decides to attempt to avoid paying war reparations to Iran.
The Baathist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was identified by the then secretary general of the United Nations as the initiator of the war and consequently was required to pay war damages to the Islamic Republic according to Article 6 of UN Resolution 598, the MP said on Thursday.
Hosseini also called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to pursue the issue through international legal mechanisms.
MP Farhad Tajari stated that the Iranian parliament is prepared to lend legal support to the administration in its efforts to obtain war damages from Iraq.
When Iraq was invaded by the United States and its allies, the Islamic Republic was the only country that stood beside Iraq, and Iran has always been sympathetic toward the post–Saddam Iraqi government, he said on Thursday.
Tajari added that the time has come for the Iraqi government to pay reparations to the Islamic Republic for the damage it inflicted upon the Iranian nation.
The eight-year imposed war began when Iraq attacked Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on September 22, 1980.
The former Iraqi dictator’s Baathist regime sought to displace the Islamic Republic as the dominant Persian Gulf state and enjoyed massive support from the United States and some of its allies throughout the course of the war.
Although the war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage to both countries, it brought no reparations. It finally ended in August 1988.