The Iran–Iraq War lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. "The war left the borders unchanged. Three years later, as war with the western powers loomed, Saddam Hussein recognized Iranian rights over the eastern half of the Shatt al-Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier."[attribution needed] In exchange Iran gave a promise not to attempt any invasion of Iraq while the latter was busy in Kuwait.