Relations between Iran and the United States had been mostly adversarial since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the seeds of animosity between the two countries were planted decades before.
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| [US-Iran conflict] |
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's relations with the United States have been largely antagonistic. However, the seeds of enmity between the two countries had been sown decades before.
Iran's Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was named the 1951 Man of the Year by TIME Magazine in 1952 for his attempts to nationalize his country's oil resources amid rising economic pressure from Britain.
Mossadegh was Iran's 35th prime minister, yet his government accomplished something no previous Iranian leader had accomplished before. He acted against British interests in his homeland and denied the navy access to oil sources. To grasp the significance of this chapter in Iran's history and how it has affected its future and ties with the United States, we must first go back to the turn of the century, when Iran was still known as Persia.
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Foreign governments have been watching Iran's oil riches, as they have many other countries in the area, since it was discovered. The British government urged businessman William Knox D'Arcy to invest in Persia's oil industry in 1901.
The British mediated a settlement between D'arcy and Mozaffar-al-Din, the Shah of Iran at the time. In three-quarters of the nation, D'Arcy was awarded a 60-year concession to prospect, transport, and sell petroleum, natural gas, asphalt, and minerals.
The Shah was granted a lump amount of £20,000 in cash (about $3.1 million today) and an additional £20,000 in shares as part of the agreement, with Iran receiving just 16 percent of the earnings. For decades, the D'Arcy pact was recognized as the transaction that jeopardized Iran's capacity to benefit from its own oil resources.
Masjid Suleiman in southern Iran was discovered to have a huge oil resource in 1908. It was the world's greatest oil finding at the time, and it ushered in a new era of exploration for the region.
The British government purchased out the D'Arcy concession and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which ultimately became the British Petroleum Company (BP) in 1954, after the discovery. Oil will be used to power fleets and national economies in the future, replacing coal. During World War I, Iranian oil greatly aided the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.
The value of Iranian oil was reaffirmed by Winston Churchill, who negotiated the purchase of the shares from the D'Arcy concession. He said, " Fortune brought us a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams".
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Iran's massive oil deposits were in British hands for the next 50 years, until Mossadegh rose to power. The growth of nationalist voices in the Iranian parliament damaged Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's reign after World War I.
In March 1951, an enthusiastic advocate of oil nationalization killed Iranian Prime Minister Haj Ali Azmara. Nationalists in Iran's Majlis, or parliament, nominated Mossadegh as their new Prime Minister shortly after the killing. The Shah was obliged to support Mossadegh's nomination due to the intensity of the nationalist movement.
The Iranian parliament agreed to nationalize the oil industry in May 1951.Addressing his victory, Mossadegh said in a famous speech, " Our long years of negotiations with foreign countries... have yielded no result thus far. With the oil revenues we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease and backwardness among our people. "
The nationalization of Iranian oil was a setback for Britain's economic interests as well as the British Empire's existence. Britain brought the case to the International Court of Justice and imposed an embargo on Iran's oil sector, thereby prohibiting Iran from selling its newly nationalized oil on the international market.
The British anticipate that economic pressure would undermine Mossadegh's popularity and drive him out of office. Mossadegh, on the other hand, was resolute. Mossadegh's unusual behavior abroad persisted, as he turned down every offer to solve the oil conflict.
In a desperate attempt to reclaim control of Iran's oil sector, the British government turned to the US for help in staging a coup against Mossadegh. The concept of a coup was floated by Harry Truman's government in 1952, but when Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, the British were able to persuade him by warning him about Mossadegh's communist ties.
The first attempt to depose Mossadegh had failed, but the British and Americans finally succeeded when they enlisted the help of royalists, exiled Shah loyalists.
The country was split between supporters of Shah and supporters of Mossadegh. Pro-Mossadegh periodicals were burned on fire by mobs. Protesters struggled with Mossadegh's guards while General Fazollah Zahedi encircled Mossadegh's mansion with tanks. General Fazollah Zahedi became Iran's new Prime Minister when Mossadegh and his government surrendered. The US subsequently installed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a pro-Western ruler.
This was the newly founded CIA's first international engagement. The agency, with the support of British MI6, deposed the country's first democratically elected government. It was the start of a series of events that would influence Iran's current ties with the United States.
Mossadegh was imprisoned for three years before being released on house arrest and dying in 1967. His family was compelled to bury him at his home.
The toppling of Mossadegh marked the beginning of widespread hatred toward the United States, transforming Iran from a constitutional monarchy to a royal dictatorship.
For the first time in 2000, Secretary of State Medeleine Albright recognized the United States' part in the 1953 coup. She stated, " The coup was clearly a sitback for Iran's political development ans it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs. "
Following the 1953 coup, the British regained control of the oil, and the US increased its support for the Shah of Iran. Iran's parliament passed a measure in 2013 authorizing the government to sue the US for its role in the coup. The law was introduced in response to the emergence of declassified papers detailing how the CIA carried out the coup as part of US foreign policy.
In 1957, the US government aided the Shah in the formation of SAVAK, the infamous secret police unit.
SAVAK was responsible with keeping tabs on the Shah's political foes, as well as Iranians living abroad. The CIA trained its operatives in interrogation techniques, and the agency tortured numerous Iranians.
However, the Shah-US partnership turned a deaf ear to the mounting outrage in Iranian streets over the Shah's persecution and US intervention.
During a grandiose New Year's Eve party in late December 1977, US President Jimmy Carter lauded the Shah for making his country a 'island of stability'. Jimmy Carted said, " Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world."
Anger over the Shah and US actions resulted in the Shah's overthrow a little more than a year later. After 15 years in exile, religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who was instrumental in the downfall of the Shah, returned to Iran. His return signaled the start of more than four decades of hostility between Iran and the United States.
Although there have been moments of dialogue and lower tensions, the United States has labeled Iran as a terrorist supporter since 1984. Changes in government and Iran's regional proxy conflicts have reawakened tensions between the two nations.
Since the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2018, tensions between Tehran and Washington have been escalating. The United States has taken a number of moves to increase pressure on Iran's leadership, including reimposing economic sanctions in November 2018, classifying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, and strengthening energy restrictions in May 2019.
Iran's nuclear program and regional reach will be stifled as a result of the campaign, which will deplete the country's budget. Iran's response to the 'maximum pressure' campaign was a campaign of 'maximum resistance'.
The US murdered Iran's most revered military leader, Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020. He was a member of the Quads Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. His contentious engagement in Syria's civil conflict bolstered Iran's military position in the area.
President Hassan Rouhani drew comparisons between Suleimani's killing and the 1953 coup d'état orchestrated by the United States.
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Famous Speech about Iran
Barack Obama :
" For many years Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country and there is infact a tumultuous history between us."
George W. Bush :
" States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. "
One of the protesting students gave this speech after seizing the US Embassy in Tehran on November 04, 1979,
"Here was not an embassy, it was CIA center. This was a den of espionage where there were plotting against the Iranian people. "
[Disclaimer : This article may resemble TRT World's documentary]