|
Iraq
Arms from France
France became a major military supplier to Iraq after 1975 as
the two countries improved their political relations. In order
to obtain petroleum imports from the Middle East and strengthen
its traditional ties with Arab and Muslim countries, France wanted
a politico-military bridge between Paris and Baghdad.
Between 1977 and 1987, Paris contracted to sell a total of 133
Mirage F-1 fighters to Iraq. The first transfer occurred in 1978,
when France supplied eighteen Mirage F-1 interceptors and thirty
helicopters, and even agreed to an Iraqi share in the production
of the Mirage 2000 in a US$2 billion arms deal. In 1983 another
twenty-nine Mirage F-1s were exported to Baghdad. And in an unprecedented
move, France "loaned" Iraq five SuperEtendard attack aircraft,
equipped with Exocet AM39 air-to- surface missiles, from its own
naval inventory. The SuperEtendards were used extensively in the
1984 tanker war before being replaced by several F-1s. The final
batch of twenty-nine F1s was ordered in September 1985 at a cost
of more than US$500 million, a part of which was paid in crude
oil.
In 1987 the Paris-based Le Monde estimated that, between
1981 and 1985, the value of French arms transfers to Iraq was
US$5.1 billion, which represented 40 percent of total French arms
exports. Paris, however, was forced to reschedule payment on most
of its loans to Iraq because of Iraq's hard-pressed wartime economy
and did so willingly because of its longer range strategic interests.
French president Franηois Mitterand was quoted as saying that
French assistance was really aimed at keeping Iraq from losing
the war. Iraqi debts to France were estimated at US$3 billion
in 1987.
French military sales to Iraq were important for at least two
reasons. First, they represented high-performance items. Iraq
received attack helicopters, missiles, military vehicles, and
artillery pieces from France. Iraq also bought more than 400 Exocet
AM39 air-to-surface missiles and at least 200 AS30 laserguided
missiles between 1983 and 1986. Second, unlike most other suppliers,
France adopted an independent and unambiguous arms sales policy
towards Iraq. France did not tie French arms commitments to Baghdad's
politico-military actions, and it openly traded with Iraq even
when Iranian-inspired terrorists took French hostages in Lebanon.
In late 1987, however, the French softened their Persian Gulf
policy, and they consummated a deal with Tehran involving the
exchange of hostages for detained diplomatic personnel. It was
impossible in early 1988 to determine whether France would curtail
its arms exports to Iraq in conjunction with this agreement.
Data as of May 1988
|
