The tournament was held at the Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad, Iraq and took place from 23 March to 9 April 1979.

[1] Hosts Iraq won their first ever title after defeating Saudi Arabia 2–0,[2] becoming the second team to win the competition after Kuwait.

Originally, the tournament was scheduled to take place in 1978 and hosted in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, but it was delayed after the UAE gave up their hosting rights.

[3] The seven teams in the tournament played a single round-robin style competition.

The team achieving first place in the overall standings was the tournament winner.