_#_Disputes: Iran and Iraq restored diplomatic relations on 14 October 1990 following the end of the war that began on 22 September 1980; progress had been made on the major issues of contention—troop withdrawal, prisoner-of-war exchanges, demarcation of the border, freedom of navigation, and sovereignty over the Shatt al Arab waterway—but written agreements had yet to be drawn up when frictions reemerged in March 1991 in the wake of Shia and Kurdish revolts in Iraq that Baghdad accused Tehran of supporting; Kurdish question among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the USSR; shares Neutral Zone with Saudi Arabia—in December 1981, Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed a boundary agreement that divides the zone between them, but the agreement must be ratified before it becomes effective; Iraqi forces invaded and occupied Kuwait from 2 August 1990 until 27 February 1991; in April 1991 official Iraqi acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 687, which demands that Iraq accept its internationally recognized border with Kuwait, ended earlier claims to Bubiyan and Warbah Islands or to all of Kuwait; periodic disputes with upstream riparian Syria over Euphrates water rights; potential dispute over water development plans by Turkey for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
_#_Climate: desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers
_#_Terrain: mostly broad plains; reedy marshes in southeast; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey
_#_Natural resources: crude oil, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur
_#_Land use: arable land 12%; permanent crops 1%; meadows and pastures 9%; forest and woodland 3%; other 75%; includes irrigated 4%
_#_Environment: development of Tigris-Euphrates river systems contingent upon agreements with upstream riparians (Syria, Turkey); air and water pollution; soil degradation (salinization) and erosion; desertification
_*People #_Population: 19,524,718 (July 1991), growth rate 3.9% (1991)
_#_Birth rate: 46 births/1,000 population (1991)
_#_Death rate: 7 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
_#_Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)