Why did nobody win the Iran-Iraq War?

Answer 1

Nobody won the Iran-Iraq War because it was resolved by an armistice agreement or ceasefire (UNSC Resolution 598). A war can only be won if one party approaches the other party and surrenders, but neither than Iraqis nor the Iranians did this. If the United Nations had not intervened, it is completely possible that the Iraqis and the Iranians could have continued fighting each other well into the 1990s.

In terms of why the two sides were still fighting eight years after hostilities had begun instead of resolving the conflict sooner, the Iran-Iraq War was a fight between parties that had roughly equal military strength and who were fighting in hilly and mountainous terrain. Land invasions on either side went through small chokepointsand were ambushed by the opposite side. This led to very small pieces of enemy land coming under foreign occupation after years of fighting.