Iran: Between British Intervention Yesterday and American Intervention Today

21-9-2018
In the book Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future......by Stephen Kinzer , and the first edition of which was published in 2012....I read... what the Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court wrote.....William Douglas who visited Iran before the American intelligence agency's coup against Mosaddegh - Prime Minister of Iran at that time...in 1953.::::"When Mosaddegh and the land of Persia embarked on basic reforms..we were seized by panic and united with the British to destroy him - and since that time...our name has not enjoyed respect....in the Middle East."
Iranians knew of America throughout a century before 1953 only goodness, cooperation, and friendship..thousands of Iranians in that period attended American schools... and thousands of them were treated in the American hospital in Tehran..and Iranians did not forget..American names ...and their footsteps on Iranian soil in the early twentieth century...for example..the teacher from the state of Nebraska...who taught mathematics and English..and history....and who was 24 years old..and his name was Howard..Baskerville...who joined Iranians in the city of Tabriz, with its two thousand years of antiquity...in their struggle for democracy and constitutional life. In 1907...he arrived that year as a teacher and missionary..in the American Memorial School...and Iran in those days...was occupied by Britain and Russia -- pursuant to a partition treaty between the two countries in 1907...Russia retained the northern part and Britain the southern part...except for the city of Tabriz ..which was not occupied...and Iran at that time was ruled by the Qajar dynasty...cooperating with the occupying foreign powers...

Baskerville had formed a force of volunteers ...to help the Iranians ...and transported medicine and food to the revolutionaries against the monarchical rule ...and he told his students on his last day "I cannot stand at my classroom window and watch calmly while the people of this city..hungry..fight for their rights...the freedom of the city and constitutional liberty"..He died in April 1909..after collapsing, felled by a sniper shot during the cited siege..

A figure honored in Iran to this day ..and he is viewed as an embodiment of the shared values that linked Iranians and Americans...in those days when the role was good and well-intentioned...until Britain entered...changing roles through its conspiracies against other countries rich in oil..chief among them Iran...
The British dominated Iran for generations...and Iran was considered by Britain and Russia as a territory to be partitioned ...as they divided it under a treaty between them in 1907 ..the north to Russia and the south to Britain..and then shortly before World War II...Britain and Russia, in 1941, occupied Iran and crushed its army in two days...given the sympathies of the ruler at that time, Reza Shah..toward Germany..

A prominent national leader emerged in Iran during that period — one of the most cultured political figures: Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh — who was the first to obtain a doctorate in law from a European university. He was tall. His father had previously held the Ministry of Finance for decades. From the start Mohammad Mossadegh had two obsessions: that the Shah remain a symbol for the Iranian people and not engage in any matters related to politics, exactly like the Queen of Britain, and that a Prime Minister exercise the actual rule. His second aim was for the Iranian people to recover their country’s oil; Iran was one of the major oil producers at that time, and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was controlling Iranian oil. Mossadegh knew that his country received only 16% from that company, whereas Aramco in Saudi Arabia paid 50% of revenues to Saudi Arabia. During negotiations Britain did not agree to increase the Iranians’ share. Mossadegh was one of the staunch defenders of his people’s wealth: he had served as chairman of the oil committee in the Iranian Parliament when he was elected a member of Parliament in the years 1946, 1948 and 1950. Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister in a parliamentary vote that returned 79 votes in his favor and 12 against. Immediately after his selection Mossadegh asked Parliament to approve issuing a decision to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; Parliament approved unanimously.

Iranians tried to rid themselves of Britain and of its centuries-long humiliation of them..they felt strongly that the nationalization decision was the beginning of the end for the British..Iranians rallied around Mossadegh...who was stubborn and represented his people's aspirations..and Britain could not bribe him...and Britain had been forced after the end of World War II to leave India..and thus only Iran's oil remained as an asset that yielded profits..and Winston Churchill could not accept surrendering such assets..he had returned to British politics in 1951...
Britain undertook a series of escalatory measures..to prevent Iran from regaining its oil...which remind us of the American measures to besiege Iran with the same scenario...in these days .....despite the passage of almost more than seventy years since the British measures...they ordered all British technicians working in the vast Abadan refinery to return to Britain.., launched a global campaign to ensure technicians from other oil-producing countries would be prevented from traveling to and working at Abadan in Iran,...and convinced oil companies in other countries including the United States..to refuse to buy any oil Iran might produce..and imposed a naval blockade around Abadan to prevent tankers from entering and loading oil..and froze Iran's hard currency balances in London..and stopped exporting sugar, iron and other commodities to Iran. And they appealed to the United Nations..and the International Court to refer the matter to Iran to return the company...

These British measures tightened the noose on Iranians who lived difficult days as a result...the giant pumps in Abadan fell silent..prices rose..jobs vanished and finding food became difficult...despite all that Iranians and their leader Mossadegh did not budge an inch from their decision..
Britain had the option to invade Iran and seize the oil ..and for that, they sought help from U.S. President Truman at that time..who not only refused but warned the British against doing so.....America was still on the side of good for Iran even in that period...and the U.S. President attempted to mediate between Mossadegh and Britain..but Britain was determined to recover what it saw as its only remaining foreign asset...however he failed..
Iranians were determined and had centuries of British humiliation in their minds ..and their country's oil was in British hands..
Mossadegh defended his country's right to its wealth before the Security Council of the United Nations...saying "that the sources of oil in Iran as its lands and its rivers and its mountains...belong to the people of Iran"...and he added "and it alone possesses the authority to determine what to do with it."

The Security Council was moved by Mossadegh's appeal..and refused to blame Iran or to pressure it..and that constituted an unparalleled defeat for Britain..and made Mossadegh a global figure...and Time magazine chose him (Man of the Year 1951).....but Britain did not surrender...and when Mossadegh did not obey them, the British decided to topple.....Mossadegh..and their strategy featured offering bribes..to members of Parliament to support a vote of no confidence..and their agents began transferring money secretly...but Mossadegh learned of their conspiracy...and responded by closing the British embassy and expelling all British diplomats including their secret agents assigned to overthrow Mossadegh..Britain was stricken with despair..and Churchill then turned to Truman...and asked him whether the CIA could overthrow Mossadegh in service of an old ally -- for Britain -- knowing that only five years had passed since the founding of the agency..and that it had made no attempt to overturn any regime anywhere in the world...but U.S. President Truman informed Churchill that the agency - CIA - would not assist..

Despair overcame the British...until the day came that changed ...all policies and America's role ..which until the Truman era had been benevolent with respect to Iran..until the head of CIA operations in the Middle East, called Kermit Roosevelt...stopped in London to confer with his counterparts in the British Secret Intelligence Service...
Roosevelt later wrote years after "I informed my British colleagues then..that I was sure we did not have channels to obtain the approval of the outgoing administration - meaning Truman - , but the matter could be very different..with the new Republicans"--Roosevelt-

The 1952 elections brought Dwight Eisenhower—the new American president at that time—...to power..and with him two brothers..John Foster Dulles, who became Secretary of State..and Allen Dulles, head of the CIA..
Eisenhower declared in his election campaigns...that any government that does not align with the West or any government that dares to nationalize a Western company...must be crushed by the Americans..and thus this was the first complete American shift to play the leading..evil role in the Middle East..and the matter then became for the British the opportunity of a lifetime...who sent a envoy to meet the incoming administration..and the envoy decided...who astutely analyzed...the political scene..in Washington..where he saw that the old British issue should not be presented in terms of the necessity of ousting Mossadegh because he nationalized a British oil company...but rather the necessity of adopting a new formulation before the new American administration—Eisenhower—..and the new British story's scenario hovered..and to ensure its acceptance by the new American administration...the envoy presented that Mossadegh was too weak to stand against an imminent communist coup in Iran...and he must be removed..before the communists struck..!!
At that time, the Soviets controlled many Central European countries..and the communists seized power in China..even the communist parties in Italy and France at that time won elections....and took power..and other events...that served the British point of view in marketing their new story to the Americans to avenge and topple Mossadegh who nationalized their oil company..so this climate facilitated marketing the British idea of striking Mossadegh and Eisenhower agreed to send the CIA to Iran to carry out the matter...the operation in its execution became known as AJAX...and it is considered Ground Zero....for the United States in its new evil journey..to prey on Iran..and still is..!!!

Kermit Roosevelt...infiltrated Iran.....using a forged passport..and the operation's execution was easy as it began by bribing editorial writers in the newspapers..and sheikhs..and members of parliament to denounce Mossadegh..they described him as an atheist...a Jew..a homosexual..even a British agent..then Kermit..and his agents..tempted key military officers and police leaders..and used street gangs to sow chaos in Tehran's streets, firing pistols and smashing windows and shouting "We love Mossadegh..and communism"..on the basis of deceiving the people into believing that Mossadegh was a communist...then a second gang was used..to attack..the first in order to portray Mossadegh as incapable..of controlling his capital..and on the evening of the nineteenth of Ab of the year of the overthrow, 1953....a group..of several thousands..met at Mossadegh's house..whose members did not realize..that they were being manipulated..then military units arrived and began shelling it..the guards responded from inside to the fire..and 300 people were killed..and once firing stopped...Mossadegh's era ended..where he was tried as a traitor by the judiciary of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the new Shah of Iran..who ascended the throne from his exiled father to South Africa, Reza Shah..and Mossadegh was sentenced to prison..and house arrest for life...!!!!.
The United States entered Iran in 1953..the year of its Ground Zero...this time as an evil element not a good one...and still remains to this day....and these days the United States is tightening the blockade on Iran..and has classified Iran as the primary state sponsor of terrorism..and America is taking the same steps that Britain took seven decades ago..by besieging..Iran's oil..for Iran remains in the United States' view rich and full of oil..and rich in its thought..which the Americans see as an extremist thought that threatens the interests of the United States and its friends and allies..with danger..

The United States and its followers in the region are trying..to sow corruption and empower states and groups to stir chaos in Iran, whether economically or security-wise...in order to pounce on it..to seize the energy wealth..there..for the United States alone..under the pretexts of entrenching Democracy and Human Rights..in Iran..and uprooting the roots of state sponsorship of terrorism there!!!

Iranians used to chant when the Americans issued condemnations and threatened and punished..Iran...the Iranians would object.....and chant...."We once had a democracy..but you took it from us.."

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