Good Muslims Become Bad Muslims: Iran

In a previous article Bad Muslims Become Good Muslims: Libya I wrote how Libya, a terrorist country turned good and became a friend of the west . Today we will be looking at Iran.

Why is there so much ill feeling against the American Government by the people & Governments of Iran? and Why does the United States not trust Iran?

To answer this question we have to go back in time, we need to go back to the first world war. Iran was a neutral country but was occupied jointly by the British & Russian forces. In 1921 the British felt that they did not like the way the country was run and so they replaced Ahmed Shah Qajar (monarch of Iran) in a coup d'état and replaced him with its own pupet monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi, establishing the Pahlavi dynasty.

The British interest in Iran was mainly oil related, something the Iranian government had no control over. Iran was a British possession in all but name. The oil revenues from Iran was one the main reason Britain enjoyed the golden years of growth in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Nikki R. Keddie, a historian wrote in his book: modern Iran: Roots and results of Revolution (1981):

“Iran…[had] no say in the [oil] company, not even the right to see its books, …[and was] paying high prices for Iranian oil. …The AIOC [Anglo-Iranian Oil Company] paid much more money in income taxes to the British government than it did in royalties to the Iranian government…”

Under the new dynesty, Iran began to modernize and establish a central government and reasserted its authority over the tribes and provinces. Unfortunately the new Monarch was not always looking after “British interests” and so in 1941 was forced to abdicate, replaced by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

The new monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi initially took a very hands-off role in government, and allowed parliament to hold a lot of power. Elections were held, prime ministers came and went but the most significant of them was Dr Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh (an European educated lawyer) was elected Prime minister In 1951, After his predessior General Haj-Ali Ramza was assassinated.

Mossadegh saw what was happening with the oil situation and tried to negiotiate higher oil royalties but failed. In 1951 the Iranian parliament decided to nationalise Irans Oil industry and seized control of the British Oil company (something known as the Abadan Crisis). The British government saw this as a disaster and blocked all routes for Iran to sell oil to any other country. The oil was Irans main income and Britain was the main consumer. The economic blockade caused a real hardship for all citizens of Iran.

The shah saw the hardship and forced Mossadegh briefly from power in 1952 but Mossadegh was quickly re-elected by an overwhelming majority. The popularity of Mossadesh frightened the Shah and he chose to leave the country. Mossadegh declared Iran a republic and continued the nationalisation process.

So where was the American involement?

As Britain was losing grip in Iran it asked the US government to help it initiate a coup to overthrow the Iranian government. The Truman administration in 1952 rejected it because it believed it had no right to interfere with a democratically elected country and its domestic policies. It was a bitter blow for the British government.

In 1953 a new administration took office in the White House. The British government again tried its luck and this time presented President Eisenhower with false details that the Mossadegh government of Iran could initiate an oil crisis and become a communist threat. President Eisenhower agreed to help and provided One Million dollars for funds.

The CIA immediately started its work. Its first objective was to destabilise the Iranain government internally. CIA agents were sent to Iran and begain stirring up trouble by injecting false information so that there would be hatred against Mossadegh. They also went to find Iranian backers for the coup and found support from General Zahedi.

The CIA contacted the Shah but coud not convince him to sign the C.I.A.-written decrees firing Prime Minister Mossadegh and appointing General Zahedi as prime minister. The Shah had severe doubts on whether the army would support him in a showdown. The CIA contacted the Shah’s sister (who was based in France) and convinced her to persuade him to follow the CIA plan. The plan worked in what was known as Operation Ajax.

The Shah returned to Iran. He told Prime Minister Mossadegh to step down from office but when he refused the Prime Minister was arrested (for high treason) and put under house arrest until his natural death. Martial law was delared and this lastred for 16 years.

In return for the US support the Shah agreed, in 1954, to allow an international consortium of British (40%), American (40%), French (6%), and Dutch (14%) companies to run the Iranian oil facilities for the next 25 years, with profits shared equally. The international consortium agreed to a fifty-fifty split of profits with Iran but would not allow Iran to audit their accounts to confirm the consortium was reporting profits properly, nor would they allow Iran to have members on their board of directors.

Iran became closer to the West, joining the Baghdad Pact and receiving military and economic aid from the US. Whilst the Shah remained in power, $18 billion worth of arms was sold to Iran.

The CIA also set up (and trained) a secret police service called SAVAK to keep the Shah in power. The Shah became a ruthless dictator and resorted to “torture” to political opposition. In total the CIA injected $5 million to Iran to help the government they had installed consolidate power.

It was assumed that for every $1 the United States spent on Iranian oil they received $2 on Arms sales and exports of American goods - not bad business. In addition, the shah was extorting punitive taxes from the impoverished Iranian people, and these taxes were used to buy more US goods.

As Iran became more prosperous from oil royalties, the benefits of the wealth were only consumed by a few. This led to growth in anti-monarchy resentment, particularly from religious clergies and organisations. The Islamic clergy, headed by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (who had been exiled in 1964), were becoming increasingly vociferous.

With growing resentment from his citizens, the shah finally declared martial law in September 1978. The Shah recognised the erosion of his power-base and was persuaded by his Prime Minister to leave Iran on January 16, 1979. The Shah never came back and died in exile.

The Shah’s government did not stay in power very long. An alliance led by the Ayatollah Khomeini took over the country in February 11, 1979 and the Ayatollah was elected Iran's Supreme Leader.

The new government began a nationalisation programme and restored Islamic traditions in culture and law. Western influences were banned and many of the pro-West migrated. The rest is history.

Some key points after Ayatollah Khomeini came into power:

(1) The Islamic government of Ayatollah Khomeini supported terrorist attacks against American interests largely because of the long American history of supporting the shah.

(2) The US government claimed in public to be an enemy of the new ‘Iranian government’, yet it gave this government $5.5 billion after it seized the US embassy in Tehran.

(3) During the Iran-Iraq war, the US backed Iraq financially and militarily but allowed Israel to sell American arms to Iran to balance the power!. At the same time the Reagan Administration continued to replenish Israel’s stockpile of American-made weapons (something known as the Iran-Contra affair).

The US Congress looked into the affair and the New York Times summarised in 1999, that:
“Soon after taking office in 1981, the Reagan Administration secretly and abruptly changed United States policy and allowed Israel to sell several billion dollars’ worth of American-made arms, spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian Government. . .
…The change in policy came long before the Iranian-sponsored seizure of American hostages in Lebanon began in 1982. . .” – basically arms were sold to make money and not used as a tool to release hostages!

(4) Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, and an elected body of senior clerics chose Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to be his successor.

(5) Iran is currently in the news because of its aim to obtain nuclear power. During 2005 and 2006, there were claims that the United States and Israel were planning to attack Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

(6) There have been claims by journalists (Scott Ritter, Seymour Hersh and Raw Story) that the US military (or its agents) had secretly entered into Iranian territory (from June 2005 - June 2006) and carried out acts of violence and information gathering.

(7) To this day the US government have not formally apologised to the Iranians government for its part in overthrowing a democratically elected government and replacing it with a dictator.

The closest they came was when Madeline Albright (then Secretary of State) made a statement in March 2000. "The Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons," she said. "But the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."

A simple apology might lead to negotiations between the US and Iran. This will resolve any misunderstandings and bring friendship between the two nations. If Libya was given a second chance by the US why not Iran? The current President of Iran has been very transparent. He has a Blog, he has been interviewed by CBS American News and has also written an eight page letter to President Bush.

He is clearly trying to open negotiation (even though it may seem he is publicity seeking), Why is the US wasting the opportunity for peace and stability? Why are we not giving peace a chance? It can only lead to the speculation that the British & American governments are looking for a second helping. Lets no repeat history!

More info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3362443.stm

http://www.hirhome.com/iraniraq/guide-iraniraq.htm

Book: Nikki R. Keddie: modern Iran: Roots and results of Revolution (1981)