Did Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran have friendly relations?
They weren’t friendly, but they weren’t nowhere near as bad as they were between 1979 (Iranian Revolution) until 2003 (Saddam overthrown). There were sharp disagreements about the border between Iran and Iraq. Specifically, the disputes focused on where in the Shaat al-Arab waterway the border between two countries was located. Iran said that it was at the “thalweg” line (essentially the deepest point), while Iraq said that it controlled the entire waterway, and that the border between the two countries was the Iranian shoreline. Also, both Iran and Iraq supported Kurdish rebels in the other country. In 1975, Saddam and the Shah signed an agreement brokered by Algeria. The agreement called for the boundary in the Shaat al-Arab to be the thalweg line, and for each country to stop supporting Kurdish rebels in the other country. There were some border skirmishes during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but nothing major. At that time, Iraq did not have much of a military, and Iran’s militar
