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Initial attempts to end the war failed. U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim convened the Security Council in an informal session on Tuesday, but all its members could agree on was to express "deep concern" and appeal to the combatants "to desist from all armed activity." Said a U.S. official: "The Security Council is the logical place to sort this out, but neither regime has a history of paying much attention to the U.N." Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, on good terms with both Saddam and Khomeini, offered his services to help end the war and visited both Baghdad and Tehran, but with no known results. Because most Arab nations supported Iraq, mediation from that quarter was all but ruled out. Said a U.S. analyst: "As this goes on, it will polarize the region. The Arab states will fall behind Iraq out of Arab solidarity while the fighting continues. In the long run, we have to be concerned about the crisis on nations already beset with insecurity."
The U.S., which has no diplomatic relations with either country, knew from the start that its hands were tied. Said American University President Joseph Sisco, former Under Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs: "This is the first time in recent years that the U.S. has not been able to play even a diplomatic role in a significant Mideast conflict."
As the battle continued along the Shatt al Arab and other segments of the Iraq-Iran border, Iraq came up with its own demands, which if met, it said, would end the hostilities. Having initiated the war, Baghdad laid down four conditions that might stop it. Iran would have to agree to respect Iraqi sovereignty over its own land and waters, would have to maintain good relations with its Arab neighbors along the gulf, would have to promise not to meddle in Iraq's internal affairs, and as a kind of catchall, would have to refrain from "aggressive" activities.
The Iraqi plan did not get anywhere in Tehran. Recognizing Iraqi control over land and waters meant giving up the Shatt al Arab. Not meddling in Iraq's internal affairs implied cutting links with the Shi'ites of Iraq, who represent half the country's population and have long had close ties to the Shi'ites of Iran, particularly since their most holy shrines are in Iraq at An Najaf and Karbala. Iran, on hearing the terms, turned them down out of hand.