French support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War

[3] France traditionally had a balanced policy in the Middle East, and wanted to continue those both for general reasons of state, as well as ensuring petroleum supply.

In issues including the Syrian role in Lebanon, the Arab–Israeli conflict, and having a nonaligned movement separate from the Western and Soviet camps, French and Iraqi policy differed.

In some countries, such as France, the government both controls a large segment of the military industry, and also decides on the propriety of export.

Since France has a significant commercial as well as military space program, the second largest in NATO, it has an unusual competence in missile technology.

The Defense Ministry is the key controlling organization—specifically the Director of International Relations at the Délégation Générale des Armements (DGA).

Iraq may have had some French and Jordanian military advisors in the defense to the Iranian attack, Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas.

"[7] France had sold arms to Iraq during the 1966 to 1968 regime of Abd ar Rahman Arif, but increased its sales between 1974 and 1980.

The final batch of twenty-nine aircraft was ordered in September 1985, with a pricetag of over 500 million dollars, part of which was paid in crude oil.

[1] France "loaned" Iraq five Super Etendard attack aircraft, equipped with Exocet AM39 air-launched anti-ship missiles, from its own naval inventory.

It certainly changed something in the eye of the Iranians, who apparently were responsible [citation needed] for the Drakkar building terrorist attack, which killed 58 French soldiers.

[6] It is worth noting that Argentina, during the Falklands War, used Super Etendards to deliver its five air-launched Exocet missiles, sinking two British ships.

Reproduced in the U.S. Congressional Record, a CBS News interview with arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian gave details of his dealings with Iraq before, during, and after the Iran-Iraq War.

Sarkis says the equipment he sold to Iraq has been customized to withstand the heat and sand and dust of the Middle East.

Baghdad Study & Research Center), with the member companies Technicatome, Société Générale pour les Techniques Nouvelles, Comsip Enterprise, Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Méditerranée, and Bouygues Offshores.

The CIA judged that France (and Italy) were unlikely to default on contracts, as they wanted to keep the good will of a major oil supplier.

Iraq obtained between 100 and 106 tons of this normally export-controlled substance, through a complex series of transactions, middlemen, and front companies.

In 1988, Adel Ali Ridha, an official of the Iraqi gas centrifuge, met a French dealer of the company 3F at the Saddam Establishment, a military manufacturing facility.

Approximately a month later, the salesman returned to Baghdad, told Adel there were problems in getting a French export license, but volunteered to help find a supplier.

The material passed Iraqi tests, and the French representative brought in a Pakistani middleman, in October 1988 with Muzhar Malik, who was based in Britain.

President François Mitterrand was reported to have said he "knew of French companies that were breaking the United Nations embargo against Iraq.