Why are we so beastly to Iran?

As if we haven't caused them enough grief over the last 100 years

In 1901 William Knox D'Arcy obtained a 60-year oil concession to three-quarters of the country. The Persians would receive 16% of the profits, a miserable deal as they'd soon realise. 

By 1911 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company had completed a pipeline from the oilfield to its new refinery at Abadan. Just before the outbreak of World War 1 Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was eager to convert the British fleet from coal. To secure a reliable oil source the British Government took a major shareholding in Anglo-Persian.

In the 1920s and 1930s the company profited hugely from paying the Persians so little and refusing to renegotiate terms. An angry Persia eventually cancelled the D'Arcy agreement and the matter ended up in the Court of International Justice. A new agreement in 1933 provided Anglo-Persian with a fresh 60-year concession on a smaller area. The terms were an improvement but still far from fair.

In 1935 Persia became known internationally by its other name, Iran, and Anglo-Persian Oil was renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil. By 1950 Abadan was the biggest oil refinery in the world and the British government, with its 52% holding, effectively colonised part of southern Iran. Relations had long been soured by Iran's tiny share of the profits and the company’s treatment of its oil workers. A strike by 6,000 was violently put down with 200 dead or injured. In 1951 Aramco was sharing profits with the Saudis on a 50/50 basis while Anglo-Iranian handed Iran only 18%. Something had to give.

Dr Mohammad Mossadeq, elected as Prime Minister in 1951, and removed by a UK/US-driven coup in 1953

Iran, not unreasonably, wanted economic and political independence and an end to poverty. In March 1951 the Majlis and Senate voted to nationalise Anglo-Iranian, which had controlled Iran's oil industry since 1913 under terms unfavourable to the host country. Social reformer and prime minister Dr Mohammad Mossadeq carried out his government's wishes. As he explained, Our long years of negotiations with foreign countries… have yielded no results this far. With the oil revenues we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people. Furthermore, he said, by eliminating the power of the British company they'd also eliminate corruption and intrigue. (M. Fateh, Panjah Sal-e Naft-e Iran, p. 525).

For this he'd be removed in a coup by MI6 and the CIA, imprisoned for 3 years then put under house arrest until his death. Britain, bent on regime change, orchestrated a world-wide boycott of Iranian oil, froze Iran’s sterling assets and threatened legal action against anyone purchasing oil produced in the formerly British-controlled refinery. The Iranian economy was soon in ruins.... Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Churchill (then prime minister) had let it be known that Mossadeq was turning communist and pushing Iran into Russia's arms at a time when Cold War anxiety was high. America, under Truman, had been reluctant at first to join Britain’s destructive game, but the mention of a communist threat was enough to bring the new US president, Eisenhower, on board and plotting with Britain to eliminate Mossadeq.

Their nasty game involved Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi signing two decrees, one dismissing Mossadeq and the other nominating the CIA's choice, General Fazlollah Zahedi, as prime minister. These decrees were written as dictated by the CIA. The Shah fled to Baghdad then Rome until it was safe for him to return and take over. Mossadeq was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason by the Shah's military court. He remarked:

My greatest sin is that I nationalised Iran’s oil industry and discarded the system of political and economic exploitation by the world’s greatest empire… I am well aware that my fate must serve as an example in the future throughout the Middle East in breaking the chains of slavery and servitude to colonial interests. His supporters were rounded up, imprisoned, tortured or executed.

Zahedi's new government reached agreement with foreign oil companies to form a consortium to restore the flow, awarding the US and Britain the lion's share - 40% going to Anglo-Iranian. The consortium agreed to split profits on a 50-50 basis but refused to open its books to Iranian auditors or allow Iranians onto the board.

The US massively funded the Shah's government, his army and his hated secret police force, SAVAK. Anglo-Iranian Oil changed its name to British Petroleum in 1954. Mossadeq died in 1967. The CIA-engineered coup that toppled him, reinstated the Shah and let the American oil companies in, was a bitter pill for the Iranians. The British-American conspiracy backfired spectacularly 25 years later with the Islamic Revolution of 1978-9. 

Big Satan and the two Little Satans

Iran's religious leader Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution, coined the nickname Big Satan for the United States, condemning it as an imperialist power and sponsor of corruption throughout the world. He referred to Israel as Little Satan, particularly in regard to its relationship with the US but also Israel's backing of the Shah, and the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Little Satan is also reserved for Britain although Wily Fox is often preferred. If Big Satan and Wily Fox, after destroying Mossadeq's fledgling democratic government, are unhappy about ayatollahs ruling Iran they should remember who put them there.

To this day the US are still sore about the Tehran hostage crisis in the aftermath of the Revolution when students seized 66 American citizens at the US embassy and held 52 of them hostage for 444 days. The fear was that America planned to reinstate the Shah (who was undergoing cancer treatment in the US) for a second time.

Then, in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the US and UK abandoned Iran and supported Saddam, and we remember how that turned out.

Iran's struggle for Democracy

It's wrong to think the government of modern Iran is medieval, as portrayed by Western media.

The 1906 Persian Constitution curbed the Shah's dictatorial powers and established a constitutional monarchy based on the Quran with the Belgian constitution serving as a model framework. An amendment in 1907 required decisions by the Majlis (parliament) to accord with the sacred principles of Islam (which presumably is why there are no plans to develop a nuclear weapon). Twelver Shi'ism was declared to be the state religion, with a council of five high-ranking Twelver Shia clerics to ensure that laws passed by parliament did not clash with the laws of Islam.

It was resisted by the ruling class and their supporters, and years of turmoil followed. But the idea of parliamentary democracy was firmly established even if difficult to implement. How different things would have been if Britain and America hadn't foolishly deposed Mossadeq and his fledgling democracy in the 1950s. The 1978-79 Revolution somewhat distorted those fine principles by allowing the Supreme Leader to sometimes act like the 12th Imam, who is supposed to have gone into divine occultation (hiding) to escape persecution and is still waiting for the right moment to reappear and unite the world against tyranny.

The Quran and Belgian constitution remain the foundation of Iranians' hopes for better governance. Their amazing struggle is a long story which deserves more time and detail than we have here.

Israel is guaranteed a military edge over its neighbours especially Iran

But the most evil act, by far, has been the one nobody talks about - the US's QME doctrine. Since 1948 US Presidents and both houses of Congress have repeatedly reaffirmed the special bond between the United States and Israel. And, since the Islamic Revolution, they have repeatedly demonised Iran for fomenting instability and promoting extremism in the Middle East. According to them Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten vital United States interests as well as Israel and US Armed Forces in the region. So in 2008 Congress enacted legislation requiring that US arms sales to other countries in the Middle East must not adversely affect Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME), thus ensuring the apartheid state always has the upper hand.

They define QME as:

the ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties, through the use of superior military means.

The US views its QME policy as crucial to Israel's survival and maintaining a strategic balance in the region, citing Israel's role as a bastion of liberal representative government.

This hare-brained philosophy is  enshrined in the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012. Read the whole thing here, if you have the stomach for it: https://www.congress.gov/112/statute/STATUTE-126/STATUTE-126-Pg1146.pdf

And who can forget Trump's first term as President and his executive order in August 2018 reimposing a wide range of sanctions against Iran after pulling the US out of the seven-party nuclear deal which had been unanimously adopted by the Security Council with the support of the US itself? His spiteful move annoyed not only Iran but the other nations involved, many saying Iran was abiding by the terms when Trump withdrew. UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy described Trump's reimposition of sanctions as unjust and harmful and they laid bare the illegitimacy of this action. Trump in turn called Iran a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence and chaos, the irony of his remark being completely lost on him.

Trump's insistence that Iran must never have nuclear weapons makes no sense unless Israel's are part of that equation. How safe is the region - and indeed those of us outside the Middle East - under the threat of Israel’s 200 (or is it 400?) nuclear warheads? Why is Israel the only state in the region not to have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? Why hasn’t Israel signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and why has it signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, similarly the Chemical Weapons Convention? Meanwhile the world pays a crippling economic price for the US president to act out his evil fantasy of pulverising Iran.

America's unquestioning commitment to the dangerously deranged, crime-soaked Israeli regime is probably the most damaging and idiotic piece of foreign policy ever devised in the history of the modern world. The UK has superglued itself to this bizarre partnership for so-called security and other dubious reasons when common sense tells us to steer well clear. But the current situation, with the US and Israel doing the bombing and the UK happily providing intel and air-base facilities, follows the comfy satanic pattern.

The Strait of Hormuz, of course, could be re-opened simply by everyone minding their manners and acting with decency and respect. The crazed destruction in Gaza and Lebanon could similarly be ended. It's something we should all expect in the 21st Century were it not for the two Satans and Wily Fox working overtime to hold humanity back.