All United Nations attempts to intervene and mediate the dispute were rebuffed. Baathist Iraq claimed the frontier agreed to in 1937 was still the legitimate frontier. In response, Iran in the early 1970s became the main patron of Iraqi Kurdish groups fighting for independence from Iraq. In 1974 with the open encouragement and support of Iran, the Iraqi Kurdish "peshmerga" rebelled against Iraq, and instead of waging a guerrilla war, the "peshmerga" fought a conventional war against Iraq, leading to very intense fighting. In the winter of 1974–75, Iran and Iraq almost went to war over Iran's support of the Kurds in Iraq. However, given Iran's greater military strength and population, the Iraqis decided against war, and chose to make concessions to Tehran to end the Kurdish rebellion. In March 1975, Vice President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and the Shah signed the Algiers Accord in which Iraq recognized a series of straight lines closely approximating the "thalweg" (deepest channel) of the waterway, as the official border, in exchange for which Iran ended its support of the Iraqi Kurds. The Algiers Accord was seen as a national humiliation in Iraq, causing much bitterness over what was seen as Iranian bullying. However, the Algiers Accord saw Iran cease supporting the "peshmerga" as the Iranians closed the frontier, causing the Kurdish rebellion to promptly collapse. The British journalist Patrick Brogan wrote that "...the Iraqis celebrated their victory in the usual manner, by executing as many of the rebels as they could lay their hands on".