Iran, Iraq Still Fail to Bridge Waterway Dispute  August 19,
1988|CHARLES P. WALLACE | Times Staff Writer  NICOSIA, Cyprus —
Along its 115-mile length, the Shatt al Arab waterway seems like
a dead river.  On its swift passage to the Persian Gulf, with
Iran to the east and Iraq to its west, the confluence of the
mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers is the color of mud, the
result of not having been dredged for eight years.  As it heads
for the sea, it passes wrecked cities--Khorramshahr and Abadan
in Iran and Al Faw in Iraq--which have been laid waste by the
conflict between Tehran and Baghdad. Near the Iraqi port of
Basra, dozens of cargo ships lie entombed at anchor, where they
have remained trapped since the war erupted in September, 1980.
Now that the war between Iran and Iraq is due to end officially
Saturday, the river itself threatens to return to center stage
as one of the main issues dividing the warring countries. So
bitter is the dispute that the two sides rarely agree even on
what to call the waterw