NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF IRAN

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 

 

 

-Iran is located in the Middle East:

 

 

- before the 20th century, the area which forms modern Iran was the centre of the Persian Empire

- the ruler of the Persian Empire was called the Shah and, from the 17th century, his throne was called the Peacock Throne:

- the Peacock Throne is one of the best looking thrones of them all:

 

 

- the Persian Empire became Shi’a during the rule of the Safavid dynasty, which ruled Iran 1501-1722

- since that time, Iran has always been the most important Shi’a country

- in the 18th century, the Persian Empire was much bigger than present-day Iran - here’s what it looked like under the reign of the Afsharid Dynasty, which ruled 1722-1781:

 

 

- note how in addition to modern day Iran, it also included: about half of Iraq, a bit of Turkey, all of present Armenia, about half of modern Georgia, all of modern Azerbaijan, some territory north of Azerbaijan which today is part of Russia, about half of modern Turkmenistan, 3/4 of modern Afghanistan, and about a third of modern Pakistan

- 1722: end of Safavid Dynasty - comes about because of 2 big events: (1) Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire invade lands in the north; (2) the Safavids attempt to convert the Afghans, who are Sunni, to Shi’a Islam, and the Afghans take advantage of the Russian-Turkish invasion to revolt

- Nader Shah founds the Afsharid Dynasty in 1722, and succeeds in beating back the Russians, and confining the troublemaking Afghans to Afghanistan

- 1747: Nader Shah is assassinated, and the Afghans revolt, ultimately leading to the foundation of the Durrani Empire, which was headed by Ahmed Shah Durrani, and which included parts of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, a little bit of western India, and the Khorasan region of modern Iran (the north east part) - Persia never recaptures these areas (except Khorasan), and the Durrani Empire lays the foundation for the modern state of Afghanistan

- Nader Shah’s successors are weak, leading to the rise of the Zand Dynasty, tribal chieftans who become de facto shahs, although they never formally depose the Afsharids

- the founder of the Zand Dynasty, Karim Khan, moved the capital to Shiraz - here’s a picture of his house:

 

 

- in 1779, Karim Khan Zand dies, leading to a civil war as various Zands claim the Peacock Throne for themselves

 

Rise of the Qajar Dynasty:

 

- remember back to the chaos that followed Nader Shah’s death in 1747 - at the time many of the tribes had rebelled against the Persian Empire, including the Qajar tribe - after Nader Shah’s successor Adil Shah had suppressed the Qajar revolt, he ordered Agha Mohaammad, the 5-year-old son of the Qajar leader to be castrated - poor guy - nevertheless, the Qajars went ahead and elected him as their chief in 1758 - he does his best to lead the tribe, but in 1762, he gets captured and sent to Shiraz as a prisoner in Karim Khan’s house

- 1779: Karim Khan dies, leading to chaos - Agha Mohammad  takes advantage of this to escape from Karim Khan’s house

- now, while the Zands are fighting amongst themselves, Agha Mohammad goes back to his tribe and launches a rebellion - allies with other Turkic tribes

- civil war lasts 15 years, until 1794 when Agha Mohammad and his Turkmen allies capture the last Zand claimant to the throne, Lotf Ali Khan

- two years later, Agha Mohammad formally proclaims himself Shah, taking the name Mohammad Khan Qajar and thus founding the Qajar Dynasty

- here’s a picture of him - note how, although he’s happy because he’s a Shah, he’s unhappy because he’s a eunuch:

 

 

- foundation of Qajar power was always the army, consisting of the Turkic tribesmen, and Georgians who were impressed into the Persian Army after 1795

- though not Persian themselves, the Qajars ally with the educated Persians of the cities

 

Reign of Mohammad Khan Qajar, 1794-1797

 

- generally does a good job of reasserting Persian claims over regions which had been trying to revolt throughout the 18th century

- retakes Georgia in 1795 (in 1783, amidst the Zand civil wars, the king of Georgia (Georgia is a Christian kingdom, btw), signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, with Catherine the Great,  making Georgia a Russian protectorate) - in the process, the shah burns Tblisi to the ground

- also retakes Khorasan from the Durrani Empire in 1795

- 1796: moves the Persian capital to Tehran

- 1796: Catherine the Great decides to retaliate for the burning of Tblisi - leads to the Persian Expedition of 1796 - here’s a picture of Russian soldiers from the Expedition:

 

 

- Catherine’s troops invade Azerbaijan, but then Catherine dies, and her successor orders the troops to return to Russia

- 1797: Mohammad assassinated by his servants who didn’t like him because he was mean

 

Reign of Fat ’h Ali Shah Qajar, 1797-1834

 

- Mohammad Khan Qajar didn’t have any kids (since he was a eunuch), so he was succeeded as Shah by his nephew - here’s a picture:

 

 

- 1801: Russia annexes Georgia, which makes Persia really mad - WAR

- Persia’s forces are not at all up to the task, since the Russian army is now a modern western-style army - for example: at one point, 493 Russian soldiers hold off 20,000 Persian soldiers for two weeks using a cannon - here’s a picture:

 

 

- realizing that they need a better army to help them, Fat ‘h Ali sends an ambassador to ask Napoleon for help, leading to the 1807 Treaty of Finkenstein, declaring that France will help Persia against Russia - quickly, however, Napoleon makes peace with Russia, so he doesn’t come through on his promises to Persia

- shortly thereafter, the British ambassador, Sir John Malcolm (later governor of Bombay), offers British support, but then Britain also changes its mind

- 1810: Persia tries to scale up efforts in the war by declaring the Russo-Persian War a holy war - unsurprisingly, this doesn’t help

- 1813: Treaty of Gulistan concedes that Russia’s in charge of Georgia now

- the shah now realizes that he really needs to modernize his army to prevent future problems - he puts his son, Crown Prince Abbas Mirza in charge - the Brits offer to help, so Abbas Mirza sends a lot of Persians to Britain to study, and regularly liaises with the British ambassador

- Persia wasn’t very centralized yet, so Abbas Mirza’s efforts were only partially successful - but at least things were a lot better than before

- here’s a picture of Abbas Mirza - note how he’s wearing a western-style military uniform:

 

 

- 1821: Ottoman troops, claiming that they’re simply chasing after rebellious tribesmen, pursue them into Azerbaijan, an area under Persian dominion - encouraged by the British, Persia declares war on the Ottoman Empire - Abbas Mirza’s troops win the Battle of Erzurum, and in 1823, the war ends without any territory changing hands

- emboldened by how well his new army did, Abbas Mirza convinces the shah to let him try to retake the territory lost to Russia

- 1826: Russian minister in Tehran arrested and Abbas Mirza leads forces into area in present-day Azerbaijan

- sadly, the new troops weren’t as good as Abbas Mirza thought, and Persia was forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, thus recognizing even more Russian suzerainty in the Caucasus than before

- this map show how much territory Persia lost between 1801 and 1828:

 

 

- conclusion: Fat’h Ali Khan’s tenure as shah was a big bust for Persia, though it wasn’t entirely his fault - he was just a little behind the times

- did he accomplish anything at all?  well, he did manage to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, and he was a big patron of the arts, and his reign is seen as being very significant culturally - and he did commission a nice relief showing him hunting to be carved into the side of a mountain by a road outside of Tehran - here’s a closeup:

 

 

 

Reign of Mohammad Shah Qajar, 1834-1848

 

- Abbas Mirza had died in 1833 while putting down a revolt in Khorasan, so when Fat’h Ali died, he was succeeded by Abbas Mirza’s son, who became Mohammad Shah Qajar

- when Mohammad posed for his portrait, he wore traditional dress, but at least his beard wasn’t as ridiculous as his grandfather’s:

 

 

- for some unknown reason, Mohammad decided that he wanted to recapture the city of Herat - Herat had been lost to the Durrani Empire when it got its independence, but since 1824, it had been a “free city” - though really it was under British protection

- granted, Herat did have a nice citadel, built by Alexander the Great and still standing (remarkable!):

 

 

- but other than that, I can’t see why he’d possibly want it

- but he did, so he broke off Persia’s ties with Britain and instead allied himself with the France of Louis-Phillipe

- even with French advisors, however, he was unable to take Herat

- so what did Mohammad accomplish?  well, he maintained and strengthened cultural ties with the west

 

Bábism

 

- a notable feature of Mohammad’s reign was the rise of a religious movement called Bábism

- background: the largest Shi’a denomination is called Ithna-’Ashariyya, or “Twelver Shi’ism” (approximately 80% of Shi’a Muslims are Twelvers) - Twelvers belief that the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi (b.  868) (son of the Eleventh Imam) has been “hidden by God” - a condition which Shi’as call an “occultation” - since the time of the funeral of the Eleventh Imam in 874 - during Mahdi’s “Minor Occultation” (874-939), his deputies maintained communication between the Imam and the rest of the world - in 939, Mahdi began his “Major Occultation” which will continue until a time decided by God when he will return to establish justice

- begining in the 1790s, Shaykh Ahmad began teaching that the reappearance of the Mahdi was imminent - upon Shaykh Ahmad’s death, Sayyid Kazam Rashti assumed the leadership of Shaykh’s followers, known as the Shaykhis - Sayyid Kazam Rashti taught his followers that he would not live to see the Mahdi, but that the Mahdi would reappear shortly after his death, and he taught his followers how to recognize the Báb, through whom Mahdi would communicate to them- Sayyid Kazam Rashti died in 1843

- in 1844, one of Sayyid Kazam Rashti’s leading followers, Mullá Husayn entered Shiraz following Sayyid Kazam Rashti’s instructions - on May 23, 1844, he administered a test which demonstrated that Siyyid ’Ali-Muhammad of Shiraz was the Báb - here’s the room in which he figured this out:

 

 

- Siyyid ’Ali-Muhammad now took the title of “Báb”, meaning “Gate”, and implying that he was the Gate to the Mahdi, rather than the Mahdi himself (i.e. the Mahdi was communicating through him)

- the Báb appointed 18 followers, whom he called the “Letters of the Living” to spread the news that the Mahdi had resumed communication with the faithful - soon the movement grew, as the Báb’s followers, known as Bábis, began waging an intense propaganda campaign on his behalf

- the Báb authored hundreds of books defining his teachings and which he claimed represented a new sharia (law of God)

- mainstream Shi’a clerics were extremely critical of the Bábist movement and called on the government to suppress it

 

Reign of Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, 1848- 1896

 

- Mohammad Shah Qajar died in 1848 and was succeeded by his son Nasser al-Din, seen here actually sitting on the Peacock Throne:

 

 

- Nasser al-Din had modern reformist tendencies

- he opposed the spread of Bábism much more intensely than his father did, and had the Báb executed by a firing squad in 1850, and intensified persecution of the Báb’s followers

- scholars estimate that in the two decades after 1844, the Persian government executed 20,000 Bábists, mostly under Nasser al-Din’s reign

- this persecution increased after 1852 when Bábists, angry about the execution of the Báb, attempted to assassinate the Shah

- the Báb had prophesied of “He whom God shall make manifest” - in 1852, Bahá’u’lláh (whose father was the vizier of one of Fat’h Ali’s sons) declared that this was spoken of him - the authorities soon turned on him and in 1853 he was banished from the Persian Empire - he settled in the city of Baghdad, in the Ottoman Empire - those Bábis who accepted Bahá’u’lláh’s status soon made Baghdad a major pilgrimage centre - they called their new faith Bahá’í

- here’s an Ottoman picture of Bahá’u’lláh (look away if you are Bahá’í):

 

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- anyhow, enough about religion for now:

- being young and inexperienced when he came to the throne, Nasser mainly relied on his prime minister (aka his vizier), Amir Kabir (a title which Nasser granted to him, meaning “Great Ruler”), - here he his, dressed to impress:

 

 

- Amir Kabir recognized that Persia was practically bankrupt, and that its various regions were practically autonomous - as such, he initiated major reforms - for the first time there was a distinction made between public money and the money of the shah’s household; the bureaucracy was greatly centralized; foreign influence in the imperial household was diminished, but foreign trade was encouraged; excessively formal writing was banned from government documents; and, last but not least, he founded the first modern university in the Middle East, Dar ul-Funun (which would eventually become the University of Tehran)

- Amir Kabir’s reforms antagonized various nobles, and a noble faction, headed by the queen mother, convinced Nasser to dismiss Amir Kabir in 1851 - Amir Kabir was killed on the shah’s orders in 1852

- Nasser al-Din tried to regain the eastern part of Persia, especially Herat, but, like his father he was unsuccessful - ultimately, in 1856, Persia signed the Declaration of Paris, which ended the Crimean War, which recognized Afghanistan’s supremacy in the areas that formerly belonged to Persia

- in 1873, Nasser al-Din became the first Persian Shah to visit Europe - here’s a picture of him meeting Queen Victoria (she gave him the Order of the Garter):

 

 

- the Shah enjoyed Europe so much that he made a second trip there in 1889 - here he is enjoying a performance at the Royal Albert Hall (according to reports he also used the occasion to get all touchy feely with the princesses who were seated next to him):

 

 

- however, all this chumminess with the British royal family couldn’t mask the fact that Persia remained an empire in decline: Russia, having earlier had so much success in Georgia and Azerbaijan, continued to eat away at the Persian Empire, and by 1881, they had conquered Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

- nevertheless, Nasser al-Din did succeed in introducing a number of western-style reforms in Persia: including a modern postal system, a railway, a banking system, and newspapers

- he also had contact with several western businessmen - in 1890, he negotiated a deal with the British businessman Gerald Talbot to develop a tobacco company in Persia, but he was forced to back down on this after the Grand Ayatollah delivered a fatwa declaring that tobacco was contrary to the principles of Islam - this event, known as the “Tobacco Protest,” marks one of the first times in Persian history that a cleric-led protest movement attempted to influence secular  policy

 - he also had dealings with Paul Reuter (the founder of Reuters), whom Nasser al-Din awarded the Iranian Customs Incomes

- Nasser al-Din also introduced snazzy western-style banknotes:

 

 

- the later 19th century is notable for the large number of nationalist movements that arose during this period - one of the early leaders of “Islamic nationalism” during this period was an Iranian, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, seen here:

 

 

- al-Afghani was one of the first modernist political thinkers in the Islamic world

- unfortunately for Nasser al-Din, this meant that al-Afghani’s followers were not particularly fond of him, and as such, one of his follower’s assassinated the Shah in 1896

 

Reign of Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar, 1896-1907

 

- Nasser al-Din was estranged from his son Mozaffar al-Din, who spent pretty much all of Nasser al-Din’s reign “in the pursuit of pleasure” - Mozaffar al-Din was thus probably not ready to be Shah when his father was killed  - on the other hand, he did have excellent taste in facial hair and headgear:

 

 

- Persia was significantly in debt to both Britain and Russia when Mozaffar al-Din became Shah, and Mozaffar al-Din was not the man to solve that problem - instead, he took out more unpopular loans from Russia

- during his reign, Mozafar al-Din visited Europe three times - on one occasion negotiating a particularly large loan with Nicholas II of Russia

- the Shah’s bad financial condition allowed western businessmen to extract several valuable concessions from Mozaffar al-Din - it would turn out that the most significant of these by far was the D’Arcy Oil Concession, a 60-year oil concession granted to William Knox D’Arcy in 1901 under which Persia would receive only a 16% royalty on the oil during that period

- however, it was not British but Russian influence which was soon being most prominently felt in Persia

- concerns that the Shah was “selling out” Persia by granting valuable rights to foreigners in exchange for money paid to the royal household led to increasing dissatisfaction with the Shah amongst the religious establishment and the merchant class - a growing movement of clerics and merchants argued that the Shah needed to be constrained by the Rule of Law, and demanded the establishment of a western-style parliament to check the power of the crown

- the demands for a constitution grew louder in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War, in which Russia (the only European country without a constitution) was defeated by Japan (the only Asian country with a constitution)

- in December 1905, the Iranian merchant community began a massive protest after two Tehran merchants were bastinadoed for “charging exorbitant prices” - the clergy, who had first become allied with the merchants during the Tobacco Protest of 1892, sided with the merchants and joined in the protest - during these protests, both groups sought sanctuary from government forces inside a Tehran mosque - when government forces violated the sanctity of the mosque, this led to further protests and demands for a “house of justice”

- in a further scuffle in early 1906, government forces killed a seyyed (a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad), thus further enraging the protestors - this time, the clerical protestors sought refuge in the holy city of Qom, while the merchant protestors sought refuge in the British Embassy, with 12,000 merchant protestors moving into the British Embassy by summer 1906 - it was during this period that demands for a house of justice finally crystallized among the merchants

- in August, under tremendous pressure, the Shah agreed to call a “house of justice” which could draw up a constitution - elections were held and the First Majlis (“house of justice”) met in October - most of the members were members of the merchant class - here they are:

 

 

- the First Majlis understood that the Shah was growing sick quickly, and that his son was opposed to a constitution - thus, they drafted a constitution modeled on the Belgian Constitution, as quickly as possible - on December 30, 1906, on his deathbed, the Shah signed the constitution, and then died a few days later

- the constitution limited royal power; provided for an elective assembly, the Majlis, which would have law-making abilities, and the ability to approve the Shah’s appointments to the cabinet - however, when the Shah signed the constitution, he added a stipulation that the Shah’s signature would still be required for a bill passed by the Majlis to become law

- since there’s extra room, here’s a beautiful house from the Qajar period (I really should prepare a second set of notes on Iranian architecture - they have a ton of gorgeous buildings):

 

 

 

Reign of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar, 1907-1909

 

- Mozaffar al-Din was succeeded by his son Mohammad Ali:

 

 

- in 1907, unbeknownst to Persia, Russia and Britain signed the Anglo-Russian Entente, whereby they agreed to divide up their spheres of influence in Persia, with Russia taking the north, Britain taking the southeast, and a neutral zone between them:

 

 

- upon ascending the Peacock Throne, Mohammad Ali immediately attempted to undo his father’s last act - he declared that the constitution was void and attempted to abolish the Majlis as contrary to Islamic Law

- in 1882, Nasser al-Din had created an elite corps of Persian troops under the command of Russian officers, known as the Persian Cossack Brigade - Mohammad Ali now decided to use the Persian Cossack Brigade against the Majlis - here’s what the Persian Cossack Brigade looked like:

 

 

- in 1907, Mohammad Ali declared the Majlis dissolved because it was contrary to the principles of Islamic law - in 1908, he sent the Persian Cossack Brigade to bombard the Majlis and arrest its members

- forces loyal to the Majlis fought back, and, after fighting in 1908-1909, defeated the Shah’s forces and deposed Mohammad Ali, who fled into exile in Russia

 

 

Reign of Ahmad Shah Qajar, 1909-1925

 

- Mohammad Ali’s son became Shah upon his father’s overthrow:

 

 

- in 1910, with Russian backing, Mohammad Ali attempted to regain the Peacock Throne

- meanwhile, the Majlis sought to put the country’s finances on a firm footing, and determined to bring in an outsider with financial expertise - upon the advice of the American government, they now appointed Morgan Shuster (until that point a customs collector in the Philippines, then Cuba) as Treasurer-General of Persia - let’s take a look at Mr. Shuster:

 

 

- and here’s a picture of him and his staff in Tehran:

 

 

- Shuster attempted to recover plundered assets from the Shah’s brother, who was allied with his father and Imperial Russia against the Majlis - Russia protested and sent troops to invade Persia

- in December 1911, the Shah’s vice-regent bowed to British and Russian pressure and expelled Morgan Shuster - Shuster returned to the U.S. and wrote a scathing denunciation of British and Russian imperialism entitled The Strangling of Persia

- with the coming of World War I in 1914, the Russian and British Empires became involved in a war against the Ottoman Empire (which was allied with the German and Austrian Empires): as a result, Britain dispatched troops to Mesopotamia to protect it against Ottoman incursions, and Germany responded by trying to convince Muslims to conduct a jihad against British rule in India

- in 1916, fighting between Ottoman and Russian forces spilled into northern Persia, though Russian forces collapsed after the Russian Revolution of 1917, leaving the Caucasus open to the Ottomans

- in 1917, Britain used Persia as a springboard to its unsuccessful attempt to reverse the Russian Revolution

- in 1918, British troops moved into the Caucasus from Persia to encourage the locals to resist the German-Ottoman forces

- following the Armistice of 1918, British forces under Gen. Edmund Ironside invaded northern Persia in order to secure the Armistice against the Turks - here’s a pic of the general:

 

 

- by 1920-21, Bolshevik forces were moving into Persia, and the British became worried that their Indian colonies were vulnerable

- Gen. Ironside determined that the Persian Cossack Brigade, which had always been commanded by Russians, could no longer be commanded by Russians in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution - he determined to put a Persian in charge of the Cossack Brigade, and, upon the recommendation of Lt. Col. Henry Smyth, he chose Reza Pahlavi, an officer in the Cossack Brigade, as its new commander

- however, Ironside was also dissatisfied with Ahmad as Shah, believing he was weak and ineffective

- in 1921, Reza Pahlavi staged a coup d’etat against Ahmad Shah Qajar, using the Cossack Brigade to march on Tehran - the role of Ironside and Smyth in this coup has been controversial

- Reza successfully suppressed a Bolshevik soviet which had been formed in Gilan in 1921

- for the next 4 years, Pahlavi argued that Persia should become a republic - he was opposed by some leaders in the Majlis, notably Mohammed Mossadegh and Hassan Modarres, pictured here:

 

 

- in 1923, the Majlis voted to depose Ahmad as Shah, and in 1925, they named Reza Pahlavi the new Shah

 

 

Reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1925-1941

 

- here’s a picture of Reza:

 

 

- Ahmad had been forced into exile in 1923

- when Reza was crowned in 1926, he decided that the Qajar crown looked ridiculous, so he commissioned a new crown for a new dynasty (the Pahlavi Dynasty) - here’s a picture of the Pahlavi Crown:

 

 

- most of the time, though, Reza just wore a hat with a feather:

 

- he also brought in a snazzy new coat of arms:

 

 

- features of Reza Shah’s reign: authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, secularism, anti-Communism, strict censorship, state propaganda

- in 1922, Reza brought in another American to serve as Treasurer-General, Arthur Millspaugh, who up to that point had been a foreign trade advisor in the State Department - here he is:

 

 

- for the next five years, Millspaugh helped get the Iranian financial house in order: he created a budget for the first time in Iranian history; improved tax collection processes; and established procedures to reduce the amount of brigandage

- during this period, Iran saw the U.S. as its protector against encroaching British and Russian imperialism

- in an effort to assert Iranian independence, in 1931, Reza refused to let Imperial Airways fly over Iranian airspace (granting a concession instead to Lufthansa)

- by the late 1920s, the D’Arcy Oil Concession (which wasn’t supposed to expire until 1961) was deeply unpopular among Iranians - the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was making millions and Iran was only getting a 16% royalty - Reza put his new Minister of Court, Abdolhossein Teymourtash, in charge of negotiating a better deal - here’s Teymourtash:

 

 

- to give you an idea of how close Teymourtash was to Reza, he posed holding the Pahlavi crown:

 

 

- so, Teymourtash goes to England to negotiate with Sir John Cadman, the chairman of the

Anglo-Persian Oil Co.

- however, as Iranian-British relations started to deterioriate, Reza got mad at Teymourtash and sent him to prison in 1932

- oh well, in 1933, they got a new deal with APOC, which increased Iran’s royalty to 25% and reduced the size of the concession

- Teymourtash’s family was active in Iran’s burgeoning feminist movement - a big women’s leader was Teymourtash’s daughter, Iran Teymourtash:

 

 

- and his sister, Badri Teymourtash, was Iran’s first female doctor:

 

 

- the women’s movement argued successfully that women should no longer have to be veiled or wear the traditional chador

- Reza banned chadors in 1936 - to give a picture of what the feminists were upset about, here’s a picture of a woman from the 1880s:

 

 

- so, banning the chador was probably for the best

- however, religious conservatives were starting to get pretty mad at the Shah

- the burgeoning feminist movement in Iran was known as the Women’s Awakening

- Reza also oversaw major western-style reforms: he built the Trans-Iranian Railway in the 1930s, created a public education system, and set up a health care system - here he is at the opening ceremony of the new Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tehran:

 

 

- however, some of these reforms were not necessarily in Persia’s best interest - for example, a major reason why the Trans-Iranian Railway had a north-south orientation was so that British troops would be able to move north to defend against possible Russian attacks on India - British troops remained stationed in the south

- in 1935, he pointed out to western diplomats that his country was really named “Iran” and asked them to stop calling it Persia

- in addition to Millspaugh and Teymourtath, another major cabinet minister from the first half of Reza’s reign was Ali Akbar Davar:

 

 

- Davar became minister of judicial affairs in 1926 and initiated major judicial reforms - in 1927, he dismissed all of Iran’s judges and brought in French advisors to train new judges and totally overhaul the system - he also drafted a lot of rationalizing legislation - he also founded Iran’s state insurance system

- in 1928, Persia ended the capitulations which allowed westerners in Iran to have their own courts

- however, Reza also got tired of Davar and had him killed in 1937

- this is indicative of the fact that by the late 1930s, Reza was becoming increasingly authoritarian - thus, the modernizing tendencies were counterbalanced by his tendency to throw people in jail if they disagreed with him

- Reza did, however, show respect to Iran’s Jewish community, praying in front of the Torah and issuing a decree allowing Jews to leave the ghetto - Jews thus consider Reza their second-favourite Persian Emperor, behind Cyrus the Great

- with the outbreak of the Second World War, Iran tried to stay neutral, since it had strong ties with both Britain and Germany (by this point, Germany was Iran’s largest trading partner)

- because of his good relationship with Germany, Reza was able to get all Iranian Jews in Germany out of Germany

- however, Britain, afraid that Germans would sabotage its oil supply, demanded that Iran expel all Germans from the country - Iran refused - the Brits worried that Iran was only pretending to be neutral, but would really support Germany

- in 1941, following the British-Soviet alliance, they agreed to invade Iran to prevent its oil supply from falling into Nazi hands - the USSR invaded from the north and Britain from the south - soon they had captured Tehran

- Britain and the USSR now deposed Reza Shah and sent him into exile in South Africa

- Reza Shah’s legacy: major modernization of country, combined with despotism - widening rift between government and religious leaders

 

 

Reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1941-1979

 

- having deposed Reza Shah, the Allies set up his son as the new Shah - he would ultimately turn out to have as interesting a uniform as any other Shah:

 

 

- Mohammad Reza was the first Shah to be educated in Europe, at a Swiss boarding school - Teymourtash accompanied young Mohammad Reza to the school

- so, the UK and the USSR now established the “Persian Corridor” - this allowed Britain to ship things to the USSR (Germany was in the way in the west)

- here are some trucks hauling goods across Persia on their way to Russia:

 

 

- and here’s goods being transported on the Trans-Iranian Railway:

 

 

- in January 1942, the new Shah signed the Tripartite Treaty of Alliance with the UK and the USSR, under which Iran ended its stance of neutrality and agreed to supply the Allies with nonmilitary support during the rest of World War II - the Allies agreed that their troops would leave Persia within 6 months of the end of the war

- in September 1943, Iran formally declared war on Germany in order to qualify for membership in the United Nations

- November 1943: the Big Three come to Iran for the Tehran Conference - here they are in Tehran:

 

 

- the Big Three affirmed their commitment to Iran’s independence and offered Iran economic assistance

- at the end of World War II, British troops withdraw but Soviet troops stick around

- USSR creates pro-Soviet separatist regimes in northern Iran: the Azerbaijan People’s Republic and the Republic of Mahabad (a.k.a. Kurdistan) - here’s a picture of Qazi Muhammad, the new President of Kurdistan:

 

 

- this led to one of the first major episodes in the Cold War, the “Iran Crisis”: the US demanded that the USSR withdraw its troops from these new people’s republics

- the US succeeded to convince the USSR to withdraw its troops in May 1946, but only after Iran agreed to grant Russia an oil concession

- in mid-1946, Iranian forces, with US backing, re-took the two separatist provinces - the leaders of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic sought refuge in the Azerbaijan SSR, but the Kurdish leaders were captured and executed - the Soviet oil concessions were now revoked

- it initially appeared that Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi would behave as a constitutional monarch - he took a hands-off approach to government and let the Mijlas do what it wanted

- in 1951, however, Mohammad Mosssadegh became Prime Minister of Iran - here he is:

 

 

- Mossadegh had been an important leader in the Mijlas since the time of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

- Mossadegh wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil industry - he knew that this would upset the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.  (APOC was renamed AIOC in 1935), but he thought that the U.S. would support him because the US had no interest in Iran - Mossadegh led the nationalization legislation through the Mijlas and was elected as  prime minister shortly thereafter - under the terms of the nationalization, the Iranian government assumed control of AIOC’s assets and expelled all western oil companies from Iran

- Mossadegh’s political party was a National Front, an alliance of Nationalist, Liberal, and Social-Democratic parties - unfortunately for Mossadegh, he was also willing to reach out and work with the Tudeh Party of Iran, the communist party which had been founded in 1941 during the Soviet occupation - here’s the Tudeh Party logo:

 

 

- this led to the Abadan Crisis (named for the oil-producing city) - Britain was furious about the nationalization and initiated a boycott - under pressure from the British, the shah briefly removed Mossadegh from power in 1952, but Mossadegh was extremely popular, so the Shah quickly brought him back as PM

- however, Britain had another crafty plan for a coup against Mossadegh - they asked Harry Truman to approve it, but he refused - Eisenhower, on the other hand, was worried that the political situation in Iran might give the Tudeh Party the opportunity to seize power (since Communist parties have often used nationalist “front” movements to gain power - see, e.g. China, Poland, Hungary, etc., etc.)

- so he approved a joint MI6-CIA coup - the CIA appointed Kermit Roosevelt Jr.  (Teddy Roosevelt’s grandson) to be in charge of what was codenamed “Operation Ajax” - here’s Kermit:

 

 

- as a condition to participating in the coup, the US insisted that the AIOC monopoly on Iranian oil would not be restored - instead, it would be divvied up between AIOC, five US companies, Royal Dutch Shell, and the Compangnie Française des Pétroles

- February 1953: the Shah tries to force Mossadegh to resign and in August 1953, Mossadegh’s followers forced the Shah into exile- enter Fazlollah Zahedi:

 

 

- background of Zahedi: he had initially served in the Persian Cossack Brigade, and played a major role as a leader fighting separatist movements in the 1920s - Reza Shah, whom he knew from the Cossacks, appointed him as a military governor over the oil-rich province of Khuzestan - in 1941, when Reza Shah was overthrown, the British sent Zahedi to a concentration camp in Palestine for the rest of the war - when he returned from exile after the war, the new shah made him chief of secret police in charge of fighting another separatist movement - in 1951, he accepted the post of Minister of the Interior under Prime Minister Hosein Ala’, whom you can see here:

 

 

- when Mossadegh became Prime Minister, Zahedi retained his post as Minister of the Interior - however, he grew dissatisfied with Mossadegh’s policies for a number of reasons: 1) he felt that Mossadegh was too closely allied to the Tudeh Party (who held large rallies in favour of nationalization); 2) he felt that the economic embargo imposed by the UK was killing Iran’s economy; and 3) there was growing unrest among southern ethnic groups and oil workers, and he felt that Mossadegh wasn’t doing enough to stop these problems

- so in August 1953, the Shah again dismisses Mossadegh, only to have Mossadegh and his followers force the Shah into exile in Rome on August 15 - the Shah now names Zahedi as his prime minister, and, directed by the CIA and MI6, Zahedi now led a counter-coup against Mossadegh

- here, we can see Zahedi’s troops surrounding the Mijlas on August 19:

 

 

- nor was this counter-coup entirely unpopular - Zahedi was relying on the authority and charisma of the Shah, and a propaganda campaign that involved dropping thousands of pamphlets saying “Up with Communism, Down with Allah” and “Down with Islam, Up with Communism”, meaning that Mossadegh was anti-Islam while the Shah would maintain tradition - as such there were some pro-Shah, anti-Mossadegh demonstrations as Zahedi’s troops entered Tehran, which you can see here:

 

 

- Mossadegh was put on trial for high treason, though the Shah and Zahedi decided to just place him under house arrest rather than have him executed - he died peacefully in 1967

- so problem solved - in 1954, the Shah agreed to the British-American plan whereby Iranian oil was placed under an international consortium split between the Americans (40%), British (40%), Dutch (14%), and French (6%)

- thus, by 1955, everything was back to normal, and the Shah and Zahedi were as pleased as punch, as you can see by this photo of them shaking hands upon the occasion of Zahedi relinquishing the prime ministership and sailing off to become Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations:

 

 

- in 1957, the Shah ended martial law, which had been in effect in Iran since 1941

- in 1961, the Shah initiated a series of reforms which culminated in the White Revolution of 1963: the centrepiece of the White Revolution was land reform, which saw Iran’s traditional landed elites lose much of their power and influence as 90% of Iran’s land was redistributed to share-croppers following a national referendum - here we see the Shah handing out land deeds:

 

 

- other significant aspects of the White Revolution: nationalization of forests and pasture lands; government-financed heavy industry projects; more money for rural education, including the formation of the Literary Corps, which allowed young men to forego their military service in favour of teaching rural peasants how to read; and suffrage was extended to women

- problems with the White Revolution: peasants didn’t get enough land to live on and ultimately lost it to loan sharks; Shi’ite clergy angered because reforms move education and family law in non-traditional direction and limit clerical power in rural areas: it’s at this point that a young Ayatollah Ruhollah Kohmeini first comes to prominence as an opponent of the White Revolution who accuses the Shah of having fallen under infidel (Christian and Jewish) influence

- throughout the White Revolution, the Shah’s Prime Minister was Hassan-Ali Mansur (he became prime minister in 1963) - here he is:

 

 

- in 1964, the Iranian government passed the American Force Protection Act, a “capitulation” granting diplomatic immunity to American military personnel stationed in Iran

- from the holy city of Qom, the Ayatollah Khomeini denounced these capitulations - as a result, the Iranian government forced him into exile - first, he went to Turkey - here’s a picture of him  during his Turkish exile - note that he’s not wearing a turban because turbans were banned in Turkey:

 

 

- in 1965, Mansur was assassinated by a communist,, just before he was about to give his first state of the union speech to the Majlis

- to replace Mansur, the Shah chose Amir-Abbas Hoveida, seen here:

 

 

- Hoveida’s background: Hoveida leveraged a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a director of the National Iranian Oil Company in 1958; under Mansur’s leadership, he helped to create a group called the Progressive Circle, a group of western-educated technocrats; the Progressive Circle founded the New Iran Party in 1963; and in 1964, Mansur brought Hoveida into the cabinet as his Finance Minister   

- Mansur’s assassination led to increasing role for SAVAK, the Iranian secret police - during this crackdown, they killed roughly 13,000 people       

- Hoveida attempted to bring western-educated intellectuals into the government, and began a series of reforms designed to stem corruption   

- 1969-71: Iran’s relations with Iraq deteriorate - Iraq expels Iranian nationals - in response, Iran occupies 3 Persian Gulf islands it claims belong to Iran

- unrelated note: the Shah visits the US in 1971 - here he is with the Nixons:

 

 

- also in 1971, Iran’s Minister of Finance (served 1964-73), Jamshid Amouzegar, negotiates a deal with Saudi Arabia which results in the world price of oil increasing fourfold - look at how smug he looks, with his pretty golden braid:

 

 

- the Shah re-nationalizes the oil industry in 1973 - this time it’s less controversial

- beginning in the early 1970s, the People’s Mujahadin of Iran begin assassinating American military personnel and contractors stationed in Iran

- the Shah grows increasingly sceptical of multiparty democracy - as a result, in 1975, he bans all parties except for the monarchist party, the Rastakhiz (“Resurrection”) Party - all Iranians are pressured to join the party

- Hoveida’s New Iran Party was dissolved during this process, and Hoveida was persuaded to briefly become the secretary general of the Rastakhiz Party

- smug old Jamshid Amouzegar was taken hostage by Carlos the Jackel in 1975, but he eventually released him

- Amouzegar became prime minister in 1977

- the Shah visited the US again in 1977 - here he is meeting with Jimmy Carter and Carter’s advisers:

 

 

- shortly after Carter became president, the Shah had appointed Amouzegar as his PM

- nevertheless, the Shah remained quite unpopular for a number of reasons: 1) his close relationship with the US, esp. the capitulation was regarded as anti-Iranian; 2) the elitism of the Shah’s court alienated those who were not a part of it (see, e.g. the massive party thrown in1971 celebrating 2500 years of uninterrupted monarchy) ; 3) the Ayatollah Khomeini, in exile, was campaigning against him, but the Shah never cultivated allies amongst the Shi’ite clergy; 4) although the Shah was successful in repressing leftist organizations, the regime failed to notice the growth of extreme right-wing (Islamic nationalist) organizations; 5) the Shah exhibited authoritarian tendencies, repeatedly violating the 1906 constitution and unleashing the unpopular secret police, SAVAK, on the populace; 6) the antagonism of a ton of people by the creation of a one-party system in 1975

 

 

Iranian Revolution

 

- 1978 saw the whole Iranian system unwind

- three groups were opposed to the Shah’s regime in 1978: 1) constitutionalists; 2) Marxists; and 3) Islamists

- January 1978: protests by Islamic groups in the holy city of Qom in protest of calumnies printed about Khomeini in the government press - the army sent in and kills several protestors - their funerals are held 40 days later (in accordance with Muslin tradition), initiating a fresh round of demonstrations - fresh government killings lead to funerals in March, which spark another round of demonstrations       

- fearing a revolution, the Shah approached the US - the Carter administration had no consistent policy towards Iran in this period - Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski assured the Shah that the US supported his regime, but this wasn’t necessarily the case

- violence continued - Islamists started attacking cinemas

- September 8, 1978 - known as Black Friday - the Shah declared martial law and sent in tanks and helicopter gunships to break up anti-Shah demonstrations

- at this point, we’d do well to check up on the Ayatollah Khomeini - recall that he had been exiled from Iran in 1964 and had gone to Turkey - in 1965, he moved to Najaf, Iraq, and lived there until September 24, 1978, at which point Vice President Saddam Hussein’s forces bombarded his home and forced him to leave Iraq- at this point, the Ayatollah traveled to France on a tourist visa (he wasn’t sure where he’d settle next) - here he is in Neuphle-le-Château in 1978:

- in light of what was going on in Iran, journalists from around the world flocked to Neuphle-le-Château, France, to see if the Ayatollah would play a role in the emerging crisis in Iran - here’s a picture of him surrounded by journalists:

- the Ayatollah was thus transformed from being a merely local Iranian celebrity into a bona fide worldwide celebrity

- the Shah now appointed a reformist politician, Shapour Bakhthiar, as his prime minister, in an attempt to stem the reformist sentiments - here’s Bakhthiar:

- that didn’t really work out though, and Bakhthiar recommended that the Shah leave the country, resulting in the Shah going into exile on January 16, 1979

- the Shah’s departure led to mass demonstrations demanding that the Ayatollah Khomeini return to Iran - e.g.:

- two weeks later, on February 1, 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shah’s most prominent critic, returned to Iranian soil after 15 years of exile - here he is returning to Iran (note that he’s old and has to be helped off the plane by the Air France pilot):

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- so, what were Khomeini’s thoughts as he stepped off the plane?  well, they had evolved over time - in the 1940s, he had published a book in which he argued in favour of constitutional monarchy under the terms of the Iranian Constitution of 1906 - however, following his own ill treatment by the monarchy, he changed his mind, and in 1970, in Najaf, he gave a series of lectures in which he outlined his new political theory - the major points addressed during these lectures were: 1) the Sharia law should be the only law governing human society; 2) since Sharia law is the proper law, the ruler should be, a “faqih”, someone knowledgeable in Islamic law - this was opposed to the concept of rule by the people; 3) only a system of clerical rule could prevent injustice, corruption, and oppression of the poor by the powerful, prevent deviation from Sharia law, and protect the country against plots by anti-Muslim foreigners

- at the time to his return to Iran, the Ayatollah’s opinions about the need for a cleric-dominated government were not yet widely known - he was a celebrity because of his religious, not his political views, and because he had stood up to the Shah about the White Revolution

- Khomeini opposed Bakhthiar’s government, and appointed his own rival prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan

- as Khomeini’s popularity continued to grow, soldiers began to defect to his side, and the Revolution was pretty much won by Khomeini on February 11, 1979, when the military declared that it would be neutral as between the Shah’s government and Khomeini’s       

- Khomeini now proposed a new polity for Iran, submitting his proposal to a national referendum - in the “Referendum of 12 Farvardin” (March 30-31, 1979), 98.2% of Iranians agreed that Iran should become an “Islamic Republic”

Islamic Republic, 1979-Present

Foundation of the Islamic Republic

- under the terms of the Referendum of 12 Farvardin, elections were held to the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution in summer 1979

- prior to the election of the assembly, a “Revolutionary Council” had proposed a constitution, drafted by Hassan Habibi - here he is when much older:

 

- Habibi’s draft constitution was identical to the 1906 Constitution (which the Shahs had subsequently undermined), except that, in place of the Shah, it substituted an elective presidency - this was basically the model of Gaullist France

- Khomeini was prepared to submit this constitution to a national referendum, but (ironically, as it turned out), leftist politicians objected to bypassing the Assembly of Experts, and insisted that the Assembly of Experts should be allowed to amend the draft constitution before it was submitted for a national referendum

- the Assembly of Experts had 73 seats: Iranians elected clerics to 55 of these seats; 50 of these clerics belonged to the Islamic Republic Party - i.e. maybe the leftists would have been better off if the Assembly of Experts hadn’t been allowed to comment on the constitution

- the Assembly was influenced by the concept of velayat-e faqi, or “clerical guardianship”, which the Ayatollah Khomeini had developed during his time in exile - under the guidance of this idea, the Assembly modified the Constitution in 2 major ways:

(I.)  the Assembly inserted the position of “Supreme Leader of Iran” into the Iranian Constitution - the Supreme Leader would be elected by an 86-member “Assembly of Experts”, all of whom would be Muhtahids, experts in Islamic law - the Supreme Leader would be Iran’s head of state (the president would be its head of government) - the Supreme Leader’s duties include: 1) determination of Iran’s general policies and supervision of the government’s implementation of those policies; 2) he was the Commander-in-Chief, with the right to declare war or peace; 3) right to appoint: a) the fuqaha’ (Iranian chief justice) and the rest of Iran’s supreme court; b) the head of Iran’s TV and radio networks; c) the chief commanders in Iran’s armed forces; c) heading an “Expediency Council” when issues can’t be resolved by normal means; d) calling for new elections; e) decision to remove president upon recommendation of the legislature or the supreme court; f) the right to issue pardons

(II.)  the Assembly inserted a “Guardian Council” - the Guardian Council consists of 6 clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader, and 6 jurists nominated by the Head of the Judicial Power (who was himself appointed by the Supreme Leader) and elected by the Majlis - the Guardian Council constitutes the Upper House of Iran’s legislative system - if the Majlis and the Guardian Council cannot reach agreement on a bill, the bill passes to the Expediency Council, which is appointed by the Supreme Leader

- as amended by the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution, the new Constitution was submitted to the Iranian people for a referendum on December 2-3, 1979, and received in excess of 98% of the popular vote

The Iranian Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981

- the Iranian Hostage Crisis began in November 1979, a month before the referendum on the new Iranian Constitution

- the Iranian Hostage crisis was plotted by Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, seen here when he was much older:

- in consultation with the heads of the university student Islamic groups at the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, and the Iran University of Science and Technology, Asgharzadeh formed a group called the “Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line”

- the cause for this movement was the fact that the exiled Shah had been admitted to the US for cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic in October 1979       

- the Ayatollah took this as a sign that the US was plotting to restore the Shah - Khomeini now denounced the US as “the Great Satan” and the “Enemy of Islam”

- on November 4, 1979, the Muslim Followers of the Imam’s Line invaded the US embassy and took American diplomats hostage

- here’s a picture of a hostage displayed for the media - note that there has been speculation that one of the student captors in the photo is Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

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- the students demanded: 1) the return of the Shah to Iran for trial; 2) the return of the Shah’s wealth to the Iranian people; 3) an apology from the US for its undue interference in Iranian affairs; and 4) a promise not to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs in the future

- Bazrgan’s government resigned on November 6, two days after the beginning of the hostage crisis - the Islamic Revolutionary Council stepped into this power vacuum and pledged to hold the scheduled referendum on the new constitution in December

- Khomeini refused to take a position on the hostages, stating in February 1980 that the new Majlis should determine what to do about the hostage situation - on the other hand, the students proclaimed that the hostages were “guests of the Ayatollah”

- the American public was outraged and wanted the government to do something:

- at first, Jimmy Carter didn’t know what to do

- on November 14, he issued an executive order, freezing $8 billion of Iranian government assets held in US banks

The Canadian Caper

- 6 American diplomats were out on assignment in Tehran on November 4, as the hostage crisis began - by November 10, 3 of them had made it to the Canadian Embassy - 6 altogether

- the Canadian Ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, alerted the Canadian Prime Minister, Joe Clark, seen here:

- Clark called a special session of the Parliament of Canada (the first special session held since World War II), which approved the issuance of fake Canadian passports for the American diplomats

- Ambassador Taylor now sketched out a plan for the American diplomats to sneak from the Canadian Embassy to the airport:

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- January 27, 1980: arriving safely at the airport, the American diplomats used their fake Canadian passports to board a flight to Switzerland and safety

- the American public, happy to finally hear some good news out of Iran, erupted in a mass demonstration of pro-Canadian sentiment - e.g.:

The Crisis Continues

- President Carter now decided to approve a military expedition to free the hostages, entitled Operation Eagle Claw

- the rescue mission began on April 24, 1980 (four days before my birth on April 28, 1980) - things started out swimmingly:

- however, an unexpected sandstorm resulted in the downing of one of the helicopters:

and, as a result of the storm conditions, the military commander decided to abort the mission

Beginnings of the Islamic Cultural Revolution

- the first elections under the new Islamic constitution were held on January 25, 1980 - Abolhassan Banisdar becomes president (with Khomeini as Supreme Leader)

- the Islamic Cultural Revolution was a series of dramatic changes in Iranian life in the period 1980-1987

- the “Islamization of the Universities” proceeded to purge the universities of professors whose Islamicity was suspect

- one of the unexpected consequences of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution was to bring secular academics to the holy city of Qom for the first time, thus resulting in Qom’s first exposure to modern ideas

The Crisis Continues and then Finally Ends

- the Shah died of cancer in July 1980 - the students now demanded only the unfreezing of the Iranian government’s assets in the US and the right of future self-determination

- in August 1980, Mohammed Ali Rajai becomes prime minister of Iran   

- September 1980: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces invade Iran - we’ll come back to this

- the second American attempt to rescue the hostages, Operation Credible Sport, occurred in October 1980, shortly before the US presidential election - it also failed

- after Carter lost the November 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, he entered into a series of negotiations with Iran brokered by the Algerian diplomat Abdulkarim Ghuraib (the chief American negotiator was Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher) - the result of these negotiations was the Algiers Accord, signed on January 19, 1981, by which: 1) the US agreed not to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs; 2) the US un-froze Iranian assets; 3) both countries agreed to submit any potential litigation from the crisis to a joint commission; 4) the US agreed that the Shah’s personal property would not be subject to sovereign immunity principles; and 5) Iran agreed to meet its credit obligations to US lenders

- as a result of the Algiers Accords, the American hostages were freed on January 20, 1981 (Reagan’s inauguration day) - here they are arriving at the Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany:

What Happened to the Shah’s Family?

- Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was married to Fawzia of Egypt in 1939:

 

- Fawzia was the daughter of the King of Egypt (who knew that there was such a thing?), Fuad I:

- the Shah divorced Fawzia in 1945 (in Egypt) and in 1948 (in Iran)

- so that gets the Egyptian royal family (who knew?) out of the picture

- in 1951, he remarried, to Soraya Esfandiary, the daughter of the Iranian ambassador to West Germany

- here’s a picture of the Shah and his new Shahbanu (empress) on their wedding day:

- in 1958, after determining that Soraya couldn’t have children, the Shah divorced her as well - oh well, I guess that divorce is traditionally much easier in Muslim cultures than in western culture

- third time’s the charm I guess - in 1959, Mohammad Reza Shah gets his third Shahbanu, Farah, the daughter of an army captain, although she doesn’t get formally crowned until 1967, by which time she has already produced several children for the Shah - here’s the Shah, the Shahbanu, and their kids on the occasion of her coronation (and we finally get to see a picture of Mohammad Reza wearing the spectacular Pahlavi crown):

 

- and here she is, dressed to impress the Americans during a visit to the White House in 1972:

- Mohammad Reza and Farah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, was born in 1960, and in 1978, he was shipped to the US to study at Williams College (just like Alex Poole)

- at the time of the 1979 Revolution, Shahriar Shafiq, son of Mohammad Reza’s twin sister (and, hence first cousin of Reza Pahlavi), who was a captain in the Iranian Imperial Navy, began organizing a royalist resistance - however, this was cut short in December 1979 when he was assassinated in Paris, France - here’s a picture of Shahriar Shafiq and his mother:

- thus, the royalist movement had suffered a fatal blow

- nevertheless, when the Shah died in 1980, Reza Pahlavi went on TV to declare himself Shah - here he is:

- he was also careful not to get himself assassinated, so he stated that he would accept the verdict of the Iranian people as to whether a monarchic or a republican system served them best - unsurprisingly, they opted for a republican system

The Iran-Iraq War

Background: Where Did Iraq Come From?

- if we go way back, Iraq had historically been a part of the Persian Empire

- this was all changed by the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, who captured Iraq from the Persians in the 16th century - here’s a picture of Suleyman (see also the song by Neil Diamond):

- Persia managed to regain Iraq, which was then recaptured by the Ottomans in 1638 by Sultan Murad IV, seen here:

- the border between the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire was perpetually in dispute - between 1555 and 1918, the two empires signed 18 separate treaties attempting to define the border

- during World War I, the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and the Central Powers - as a result the British launched their “Mesopotamian Campaign”, a military invasion of the Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, i.e. present-day Iraq - needless to say, they won easily - here’s a photo of British troops entering the formerly Ottoman city of Baghdad in 1917:

- prior to this invasion, France, Britain, and Russia had in 1916 agreed to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which established the following spheres of influence in the Middle East:

- thus, from 1917, Baghdad was within the zone of direct British control, particularly after the 1919 Treaty of Sevres created the British Mandate of Mesopotamia, encompassing the 3 provinces

- in 1920, there was a mass revolt against British rule - as a result the British held a plebecite, in which 96% of Iraqis agreed to form the Kingdom of Iraq under King Faisal I (an outsider brought in to be king), seen here at the Conference of Versailles in 1919:

 

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- Faisal presided over Iraq becoming formally independent in 1932

- after Faisal’s death in 1933, his son Ghazi became King of Iraq:

- Ghazi was a pan-Arab nationalist; he was rumored to harbour sympathies for Nazi Germany, but he died in a car accident in 1939

- Ghazi was succeeded as King by his son Faisalh II, seen here:

- the King was overthrown by a coup in 1958 led by Abd al-Karim Qasim

- the major theme of Qasim’s tenure was the rise of the Baath Party

- in 1963, a Baathist coup resulted in Abd al-Salam ‘Arif becoming President of Iraq

- so, who were the Baathists?  well, the Ba’ath Party was founded in 1945 by Michel Aflaq, seen here:

- just a minute - that’s the wrong Aflac - here’s the real Michel Aflaq, though I imagine he also had a duck to say his name:

- Aflaq was a Greek Orthodox Christian from Syria - he founded the Ba’ath party as a secular, left-wing Arab nationalist party

- here’s the Baath party flag:

 

 

- as a pan-Arab party, the Baathists set up shop in several countries - they came to power in Syria in 1963 and have ruled the country ever since

- and, so, in 1963, they also came to power in Iraq

- later in 1963, the Baath Party, at its 6th National Congress, adopted a hardline leftist platform, calling for socialist planning, collective farms, and other Soviet-inspired changes - this leftward turn disappointed Aflaq, and led to a series of anti-Baath protests - later in 1963, Iraqi President Abd al-Salam Arif  withdrew from the Baath Party

- in 1966, Abd al-Salam Arif was killed in a helicopter crash and replaced as President by his brother Abdul Rahman Arif

- he wasn’t that great a leader though, and was overthrown in a 1968 coup by Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, who became Iraq’s new president - here he is:

- al-Bakr was actually involved with the Baath party, and his coup was supported by Egypt, which was currently being run by Gamal Abdel Nasser, seen here:

- this makes sense - Nasser was just like the Baathists - secular, socialist, pan-Arabist

- in fact, under al-Bakr, Iraq thought very seriously about joining the United Arab Republic, which you will recall was formed as a union of the Egyptian and Syrian republics in 1958 - and, although Syria withdrew in 1961, Egypt continued to refer to itself as the United Arab Republic until 1971 and sought to draw in more Arabs

- al-Bakr allied Iraq with the USSR, and continued the country’s close ties with Syria, providing Syria support in the 1972 Yom Kippur War against Israel

- in 1974, the Kurds in northern Iraq rebelled, with Iran providing aide to the Kurds - here’s the Kurdish leader, Mustafa Barzani:

- with this pressure, Iraq agreed to a border settlement favourable to Iran in 1975, and Iran ceased its support of the Kurds

- meanwhile, al-Bakr’s cousin Saddam Hussein was overseeing a major Iraqi modernization programme: oil interests were nationalized, agriculture was mechanized, and social services were instituted - here we see Saddam promoting women’s literacy and education:

- by 1976, Saddam had risen to the position of head of the Iraqi armed forces, and was appointed as Al-Bakr’s vice-president - there was much speculation that Saddam was a strongman who was already running the show in Iraq

- 1978: the Soviets attempt a coup against al-Bakr and Saddam - Iranian agents inform the Iraqi government and they’re able to prevent it, in part because Saddam orders dozens of army officers executed - as a thanks to the Iranian government, Saddam expels the Shah’s enemy, the Ayatollah Khomeini from the country, as noted above

- Saddam forces al-Bakr to resign on July 16, 1979 and on July 22 has 68 prominent members of the Baath Party executed - Saddam is now totally in control of Iraq

Background: Iraq-Iran Relations Leading Up to the War

- 1950s-60s: Iraqi leaders angry that Iran is in charge of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan - here’s Khuzestan’s location within Iran - note how it’s on the border with Iraq:

- recall that Iraq is an Arabian country and that Baathism is a pan-Arab movement - beginning in the 1960s, the Iraq government calls on Arabs living in Khuzestan (or, as they like to call it, “Arabistan”) to revolt against the Shah’s corrupt government

- beginning in 1970, after Nasser’s death, Iraq aspires to be what Nasser had been - the “leader of the Arab world” - this leads to a ratcheting up of their anti-Shah, pro-Arab rhetoric, and makes Arabistan a hot issue for them - on Iraqi maps from the period, they showed Arabistan as part of Iraq, and the Iranian cities all had Arabic names

- in 1971, Iraq broke diplomatic relations with Iran because of a dispute over three islands, control over which effectively meant control over the Strait of Hormuz, the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb, all three of which were administered by Iran, but claimed by Iraq - here’s where they’re located:

- there were other tensions between the two countries: there was also a dispute about an area owned by Iraq, but claimed by Iran, the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which controlled access to the Persian Gulf at the other end:

- Iraq also sent aide to separatists fighting the Iranian government in the province of Baluchistan, seen here:

- so, remember those pesky separatists the Iranian government was always having to fight?  turns out that Iraq was on their side too

- and finally, Iraq encourages Kurdish separatists in Iran while Iran encourages Kurdish separatists in Iraq - Kurdish separatists can be useful, so long as they’re not separating from you

- in 1974, Iraq attacked Iranian forces

- 1975: the President of Algeria, Houari Boumédienne, invites the Shah and Saddam (who then held the title of Vice Chairman of the Revolution Command Council) to Algiers and brokers a deal between the two, by which Iraq agreed to territorial concessions (including the Shatt al-Arab waterway) in exchange for normalized relations - hooray - let’s just all get along

- 1978: as a sign of their new friendliness, Iran informs Iraq of plans for a Soviet coup - the coup is thwarted, and as thanks, the Ayatollah is expelled from Iraq

- so relations between Iran and Iraq are great

- and then the Shah gets overthrown and Iran his an Islamic revolution - see above

- so, as we move into 1980, we have two new leaders in both Iran and Iraq

- Iran has a new Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:

- so, what were the Supreme Leader’s thoughts on Iraq?  well, he had lived in Najaf, Iraq for thirteen years, 1965-78, so presumably he thought it was nice - but then in 1978, he’s just minding his own business and Saddam and his old enemy the Shah get together and kick him out - this really makes the Ayatollah mad

- shortly after he became Supreme Leader, Khomeini started calling on fellow Muslims to follow Iran’s example and to rise up against their corrupt secular governments and have their own Islamic Revolutions - he seems to have had a particular eye on the masses of Iraq, the only country besides Iran with a Shi’a majority, and the corrupt secular government of his personal enemy, Saddam Hussein

- Saddam, on the other hand, wanted to get back Arabistan (he assumed that the people of Arabistan would greet him as a liberator and be happy to join Iraqi forces against Iran), and, at any rate, it’d be nice to transform Iraq into the major power in the region

- and of course, nobody else wanted a spread of Islamic revolutions - not the other rulers of Muslim countries, not the US (who hated Iran at this point because of the hostage crisis), not the Soviet Union, nobody - so pretty much everyone was on Iraq’s side, hoping that Iraq would form a solid buffer against an Islamized Iran in the region

War! - Phase 1: September 1980 - May 1982

- September 1980: Saddam’s forces invade Iran, claiming as a pretext an assassination attempt against Iraqi Vice-President Tariq Aziz

- Saddam’s goals: (1) retake the Shatt al-Arab waterway; (2) liberate the people of Arabistan and add an oil-rich province to Iraq; (3) set up defensive barriers against any possible Iranian intrusion into Iran (he never planned to conquer all of Iran); (4) acquisition of the 3 islands guarding the Strait of Hormuz (which were to be handed over to the United Arab Emirates); and (5) destabilize Khomeini’s regime

- Saddam sends in 10 divisions across the breadth of the Iran-Iraq border

- Iran was aware that Saddam was planning to invade, but had only massed 8 divisions - the new Islamic regime was worried that the armed forces were really loyal to the Shah - instead, they formed a new organization, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, known as the Pasdaran in Persian, and in English, often referred to simply as the Revolutionary Guards - here’s their logo:

- anyhow, after some initial gains, Saddam’s push into Iran is halted, in particular as volunteers from throughout Iran rush to volunteer to defend their homeland and their Revolution - recall that the Revolution had just happened and was immensely popular - many Iranians viewed the Iraq invasion as a US-backed attempt to end the Islamic Revolution, so they were eagre to volunteer to fight against the invasion - and then, Saddam’s hope of the people of “Ababistan” joining him in the struggle proved to be misguided - they were like all “Yo, we’re not Arabistan - we’re Khuzestan, and we want to stay part of Iran”

- in April 1982, Iranian forces launched Operation Jerusalem, designed to recapture the province of Khuzestan

- this all came to a head on May 24, 1982, in an event referred to in Iranian national mythology as the Liberation of Khorramshahr - Khorramshahr was a major city in Khuzestan (pop.  approx.  300,000)

- here’s a famous picture of an Iranian woman during the Battle of Khorramshahr:

- 70,000 Iranians faced off against 70,000 Iraqis - at the end of the battle, about 6,000 Iraqis were dead, and 19,000 more Iraqi troops were captured and became prisoners of war - here’s a picture of captured Iraqi soldiers:

- approximately 2,000 surrendering Iraqi troops were executed in cold blood by the victorious Iranian forces, in retaliation for the rape of some Iranian women - as a result, May 24, which is celebrated in Iran as the Liberation of Khorramshahr, is remembered in Iraq as “Martyrs’ Day”

- in the wake of this defeat, Saddam ordered his troops to withdraw to the Iraq-Iran border and following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982, called on Iraq and Iran to join the Lebanese against the Israelis - Saddam consequently proposed terms of peace with Iran

War! - Phase 2: June 1982 - August 1988

- Iran, however, was not yet ready for peace

- Iran demanded, as a consequence of peace: (1) the removal of Saddam Hussein from power; (2) $150 billion in reparations; and (3) the repatriation of 100,000 Shiites expelled from Iraq before the war (btw - Saddam had expelled 100,000 Shiites from Iraq before the war)

- these terms were obviously unacceptable to Saddam and were probably not genuine negotiating points on the part of Iran - many in Khomeini’s circle now pushed for an Iranian invasion of Iraq, possibly to be followed by annexation

- Iranian forces entered Iraq on July 13, 1982, near Basra

- this set the stage for brutal trench warfare, reminiscent of the horrors of World War I, except that it lasted 50% longer

- even before the invasion of Iran, Iraq had a considerable defensive mechanism on its border with Iran, involving a network of bunkers and artillery fire bases

- the Basra Offensive was thus going to be difficult for Iran given the best circumstances - however, to make things worse, there was growing tension between the Army and the Revolutionary Guards - thus, the five assaults of the Basra Offensive lacked the expertise and equipment of a professional army - rather the new Revolutionary Guards - accompanied by an all-volunteer paramilitary force, the Basij (which consisted mainly of teenagers) - were the ones who attempted the offensive - the boy-soldiers of the Basij were often ordered on suicide missions to clear minefields by running through them

- in this photo, we see the Ayatollah Ali Khameini (the present Supreme Leader of Iran) in the battlefield with the Revolutionary Guards:

- this alarmed American leaders - at this point, Ronald Reagan declared that the US could not afford to have Iraq lose the war to Iran and determined that the US would do everything necessary to prevent Iranian victory - the US had broken off relations with Iraq as a response to Iraq’s position in the Six Days War in 1967, but now reestablished diplomatic relations

- - Iranian forces launched five more assaults in 1983 - none were successful - this didn’t stop Khomeini, who insisted that the war should continue until Saddam’s regime was toppled and replaced by an Islamic Republic

- the besieged Iraqi leader was happy to have the support of the US in his fight to protect his country from Iran, best exemplified by this famous picture of Donald Rumsfeld visiting Saddam in December 1983:

- - Saddam announced that unless Iran ceased its attacks on Iraq, he would launch an attack on the civilian populations of 11 Iranian cities in February 1984 - instead, in February, Iran launched Operation Dawn 5 and Operation Dawn 6, in an attempt to capture the vital town of Kut al-Amara - in retaliation, Saddam carried through with his promises and launched the first of the “Wars of the Cities”

- also in February 1984, Iran launched Operation Khaibar, which, after a month of fighting in which Saddam deployed chemical weapons, resulted in Iranian forces taking the Iraqi city of Basrah

- this use of chemical weapons is exemplified by this photo of an Iranian soldier wearing a gasmask, which can be taken as emblematic of the whole war:

- the United Nations passed a resolution on March 24, 1984 condemning Saddam’s use of chemical weapons, but Donald Rumsfeld returned to Baghdad that same day to assure Saddam that the US supported him

- 1984 was also the beginning of the “Tanker War”, as both nations repeatedly attacked each other’s oil tankers, as well as the oil tankers of neutral nations - mines were laid, etc., etc.

- in March 1985, Iran launched Operation Badr, an attempt to capture the Baghdad-Basra highway - they were repulsed - in response to Operation Badr, Saddam launched the second of the Wars of the Cities, targeting Iranian urban populations

Sidenote: The Iran-Contra Affair

- in November 1986, the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa broke the story that the US had sold arms to Iran

- what!?  I thought the US was vehemently anti-Iran all through this period! - how could this possibly have happened?

- well, recall that the Reagan presidency began with the release of the American hostages held in Iran - here, for example, is Vice President George Bush on his way to greet the hostages as they return to the US:

- if there was one thing that the Reagan administration had learned from watching Jimmy Carter, it was: avoid hostage crises

- but that’s just what they got in 1982, with the Lebanon Hostage Crisis

- well, where did that come from?? - alright this gets tricky

- let’s start with a picture of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr - he’s the one on the right in this mural (the guy on the left is Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim - we’ll come to him later):

- al-Sadr is an Iraqi Shi’ite cleric - in the late 1950s, he founds the Islamic Dawa Party - he is upset that the Baath government has been suppressing the Shiite religious academy at Najaf - al-Dawa is therefore, an Islamic party concerned with maintaining traditional religion in the face of the (Sunni) Baath regime’s secularizing and modernizing policies

- note its affinities with the Ayatollah Khomeini, who is also opposing the Shah’s modernizing programme, and who is going to settle in Najaf in the 1960s

- however, during the 1960s and 1970s, while Khomeini is developing his idea of “clerical guardianship” and that power in a state should ultimately rest with the ulema (learned Shia clerics), al-Sadr engages in academic arguments with Khomeini, insisting that the power in a state ultimately rests with ummah (i.e. with the people) - for this reason, al-Sadr was willing to allow Sunnis to join the Islamic Dawa Party

- so we see that when the Islamic Revolution occurred in Iran, the Islamic Dawa Party was, broadly-speaking, happy to see the Shah’s government overthrown and Shia clerics dominant in Iran, they were nevertheless wary of Khomeini’s grab for political power

- the Islamic Dawa Party was brutally repressed by the Baathist regime

- it was likely a member of al-Dawa who attempted to assassinate Tariq Aziz in 1980 (the cassus belli of the invasion of Iran) - in March 1980, Saddam declared membership in al-Dawa a capital crime

- throughout the Iran-Iraq War, al-Dawa functioned basically as a fifth column within Iraq, receiving money from Iran, and in turn working to destabilize Iraq

- there was also a second Islamic Dawa Party, this one in Lebanon - where did it come from?

- well, this is Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah:

- Fadlallah studied at the Shia religious academy in Najaf, graduating in 1966 (a year after Khomeini, a spiritual hero to the Shia for his opposition to the Shah, arrived) - Fadlallah greatly admired al-Sadr and thus founded an Islamic Dawa Party in Lebanon when he settled there

- Lebanon became engulfed in a Civil War starting in 1975 - the causes and nature of it are too complex to explain here, but it was basically Christian vs. Muslim (note: though no census has been taken since 1932, the CIA World Factbook estimates that 29% of Lebanon is Shiite, 29% is Sunni, 20% is Maronite Christian, 15% are other Christians - wow, that was really just a civil war waiting to happen)

- the main leader of the Lebanese Shia in the 1960s and 1970s was Musa al-Sadr (a distant cousin of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr), pictured here

- his group was called Amal (the Arabic word for “hope”) and its militant wing initially supplied the main Shiite militia during the Civil War - Amal was basically a moderate party

- following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Khomeini despatched members of the Revolutionary Guard to aide Lebanese - they liaised with the Lebanese al-Dawa party, and together formed Hezbollah

- on December 12, 1983, members of the Iraqi al-Dawa party (probably) attacked the French and American embassies in Kuwait (France, the US, and Kuwait had all been supporting Iraq against Iran) - in response, a number of al-Dawa party members were imprisoned

- in protest of the imprisonment of the Iraqi al-Dawa party members, Hezbollah in Lebanon took 30 western hostages, including 6 Americans

- what should the US do??  remember the first rule of the Reagan Administration: don’t make the same mistakes Jimmy Carter made

- enter Reagan’s National Security Advisor, Robert McFarlane:

- McFarlane has a great idea: get Iran to tell Hezbollah to let the hostages go - what leverage does the US have with Iran?  well, Iran was currrently in a messy war with Iraq (sidenote: you might recall that Donald Rumsfeld was also shaking Saddam Hussein’s hand in December 1983) - and Iran certainly needs arms for that war - why not agree to sell Iran arms in exchange for a deal?

- throughout 1984, McFarlane began to think more broadly that selling arms to Iran could be a way to reach out to Iran more generally - McFarlane basically has a realpolitik idea: the Islamic Revolution is not going to be undone - what do we really care if Iraq or Iran wins the war between them?  let’s make some money by selling arms to Iran, and hopefully do a deal with them

- within the Reagan Administration, McFarlane’s view is supported by CIA Director William Casey, but opposed by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George Schultz - however, it’s ultimately Reagan who is the decider, though how much he actually approved has been a matter of some controversy

- so, enter McFarlane’s associate, National Security Consultant Michael Ledeen, seen here:

- Ledeen decides that the sale should take place via Israel, so he contacts Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, seen here with model Tami Ben-Ami and some dudes:

- the plan is: Israel ships arms to Iran, then the US reimburses Israel

- enter Manucher Ghorbanifar:

- who the hell is Manucher Ghobanifar!?  - he was an Iranian arms dealer - a friend of the prime minister of Iran - he’s in charge of buying arms for Iran

- so Shimon Peres arranges for Manucher Ghobanifar to receive the arms and to arrange for payment

- but who is Ghorba (as he was affectionately called by the press) supposed to pay?  well, long story short, the money went to Oliver North, who then proceeded to funnel that money to the Contras in Nicaragua - so, were McFarlane, Ledeen, and North rogues or were they just following orders? - this cover of Time magazine sums up North’s testimony to Congress after the scandal broke:

- anyhow, this sidenote into Iran-Contra has been much more convoluted than I wanted it to be - but the takeaway is that by 1985, the US was on both sides of the Iran-Iraq War

- but at any rate, they didn’t stop supporting Saddam - here’s a photo of US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy in 1986 explaining the Iran-Contra Affair to Saddam:

 

- some might argue that the US’s policy was a little messed up

 

War! - Phase 2: June 1982 - August 1988 - continued from above

- so, getting back to the War! - to summarize where we’ve got to so far

1980-82: Iraq tries to invade Iran

1983-85: Iran has been trying to invade Iraq and had few successes - it’s just like World War I - lots of dying, not a lot else going on

- in addition, from 1985, Saddam was launching air strikes on Tehran, and from 1986, Iran was launching Scud missiles at Baghdad

- 1986: more of the same

- 1987: one of the fiercest years of fighting - in early 1987, Iran launches Operation Karbala-5, yet another futile attempt to take Basra - again it results in a stalemate - again, the War of the Cities is ratcheted up - Iraq orders airstrikes on 8 Iranian cities, in the process killing 65 children in an elementary school in Borujerd - Iran again retaliates with Scud missiles - not wanting to miss the chance to kill schoolchildren, a Scud missile lands on a primary school in Baghdad

- meanwhile, the other part of the war, the Tanker War, is also continuing - here is a dramatic photo of the Iranian minelayer Iran Ajr which has been captured by the American navy:

- July 27, 1987: major diplomatic victory for Iraq as the United Nations passes Resolution 598, calling for an end to fighting and a return to prewar boundaries - Iraq, of course, is happy to accept these terms, but Iran, which had been having some success in the area around Kirkuk refused the peace terms

- early 1988: Saddam’s forces launch a major attack, recapturing the al-Faw peninsula (lost in 1986), and pushing into northern Iran

- this finally forced Iran to agree to accept Resolution 598 in April 1988

- by this point, however, Iraq was thinking that it might be able to gain some Iranian territory, so fighting continued

- meanwhile, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran began a campaign in the western province of Kermanshah - here’s the People’s Mujahedin’s logo:

- just a minute - who are the People’s Mujahedin of Iran anyway?  well, they were an Islamic Marxist party founded in 1965 in opposition to the Shah’s government - they had a broad interpretation of Islam that they saw as providing socialist doctrines - after the Islamic Revolution, they were the largest group opposed to the establishment of the Islamic Republic and were brutally repressed by the Iranian government - we’ll come back to this - in 1986, they fled into exile in Iraq, where Saddam was happy to greet them as allies - so, with the Iranian government faltering in summer 1986, they launched their operation - with Saddam’s support, they rolled into Permanshah, Iran - here they are:

-  this didn’t work out so well - the People’s Mojahedin suffered estimated casualties of 2,000-10,000 (estimates vary) and were routed by the Revolutionary Guard

- meanwhile, Saddam’s forces failed to move forward in Khuzestan - everyone now realized that nothing more was to be gained by fighting

- August 20, 1988: Iraq accepts the terms of Resolution 598, thus bringing the Iran-Iraq War to a close

Assessment of the Iran-Iraq War

- at the end of the day, the Iran-Iraq War was a lot of fighting for very small changes in territory - on this map, the red line represents the furthest that Iraqi forces ever advanced into Iran and the yellow line represents the furthest that Iranian forces ever advanced into Iraq:

- and of course, after 8 years of fighting, Resolution 598 only restored the status quo ante - neither side gained anything

- but the loss of life was staggering: Iran (2006 population of 70 million) saw an estimated 500,000-750,000 killed or wounded, while Iraq (2006 population approx. 25 million) saw an estimated 375,000-500,000 killed or wounded

Meanwhile, Back in Iran...

Supreme Leader the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, 1980-89

- Khomeini’s period as Supreme Leader coincided almost exactly with Ronald Reagan’s presidency - the similarities between the two were eerie - they both led conservative revolutions, both stood up to evil empires (though the evil empire Khomeini stood up to was the US), and both were pro-family, as you can see from this picture of the Grand Ayatollah with his grandchildren (much cuter than Ron Reagan’s kids):

- so, what changes does the Supreme Leader have in store for Iran?  (1)  well, first of all, it’s time to scrap that crappy legal code, modeled on the Belgian Code, and with a French-trained judiciary - time to get back to good old-fashioned Sharia law - the Quran is the first place to turn for deciding any legal question; (2) Islamic dress code - women need to be veiled - but it effects men too: they’re not allowed to wear shorts or neckties; (3) the “Islamic Cultural Revolution” resulted in an Islamicization of the entire educational system, including higher education; (4) opposition to the influence of clerics on the new regime was fiercely punished - opposition newspapers were banned and freedom of speech eroded; (5) Jews and Christians were not openly harassed, though their position as second-class citizens in an Islamic state, with financial incentives to convert to Islam - this led to many non-Muslims leaving the country - e.g. the Jewish population goes from being 80,000 at the time of the Revolution to 30,000 today; (6) the 250,000 Iranian members of the Bahá’i faith were harassed, and several key leaders assassinated;; (7) moderate Shiites also leave the country, with an estimated 2-4 million Shia Iranians leaving the country between 1980 and the present; (8) the economy, on its way to modernization under the Shah, goes into decline, and absolute poverty rises 45% during the 1980s; (8) last, but not least, there are giant pictures of Khomeini everywhere - e.g.:

- however, we should recall that, although Khomeini was “Supreme Leader”, he had more of a reserve power and didn’t personally manage Iran on a day to day basis - that was left to the secular politicians - initially at least, Khomeini did not want clerics to run for the Mijlas or for the presidency - so elections are held in early 1980 and in February 1980, this is the man who becomes President of Iran

Abdolhassan Banisadr, 1980-81

 

- Banisadr’s background: involved in anti-Shah politics in his youth - goes into exile in France in 1960s where he joins Khomeini’s resistance group - returns to Iran with Khomeini in 1979

- he runs for president on a non-partisan ticket and wins

- following elections to the Majlis, Mohammad-Ali Rajai of the Islamic Republic Party becomes prime minister

- with Saddam’s invasion of Iran in September 1980, Khomeini and the clerics criticized Banisadr for his ineffectual leadership

- as such Khomeini exercised his constitutional right to assume control of the army as Commander in Chief on June 10, 1981

- on June 21, the Majlis voted to impeach Banisadr, citing moves that Banisadr had made against Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, seen here:

- Beheshti was a major player in the Islamic Republic Party, though, since he was a cleric, he was not eligible to run for office himself - however, note that under the system of sharia law, clerics function as the judges - Beheshti was the head of the newly-established Islamic legal system    i.e. the Chief Justice of Iran

- Khomeini signs Banisadr’s impeachment papers on June 22 and the Revolutionary Guard is despatched to the presidential palace - several of Banisadr’s close friends are killed - Banisadr is supposed to be killed also, but he manages to put on a disguise and escape - he returns to exile in France, where he lives to this day

- Beheshti was assassinated by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran on June 28, 1981

Mohammad-Ali Rajai, August 1981

- with the departure of Banisadr, he was replaced as President by the darling of the Islamic Republic Party, Prime Minister Mohammad-Ali Rajai on August 2, 1981

- Rajai chose as the new prime minister, the Secretary General of the Islamic Republic Party, Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, see here in a photo with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

- two weeks later, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran set off an explosion during a cabinet meeting, thus killing President Rajai, Prime Minister Bahonar, and approximately 70 other high-ranking Iranian officials - this is a HUGE assassination

- (there had also previously been an assassination attempt on the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in June) - here we see President Rajai at Khamenei’s bedside during his convolescence - little did he know that he would soon be on the other side of the equation, assassinated a mere 2 weeks after becoming president:

- now, just a minute, so in the space of three months, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran has now assassinated the Chief Justice of Iran, the President, the Prime Minister, and 70 other high-ranking officials to boot (and tried to kill Khamenei)- I know we mentioned them briefly above, but we need to go into more depth about who these people are:

Backgrounder: The People’s Mujahedin of Iran

- the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) - in Persian, Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK) - is referred to by the Iranian government as Monafiqeen-e-Khalq (meaning “hypocrites of the people”)

- let’s look at their logo again:

- organized by a group of middle class students at Tehran University in 1965

- ideologically, combines a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam with Marxist ideology

- initially organized in opposition to the Shah, who was seen as corrupt and oppressive

- the Shah’s Secret Police, SAVAK, moved in and arrested the entire leadership of the party and 90% of its members - the group, however, conducts anti-western terrorist activities

- this is Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam:

- Rajavi was part of the original group in 1965, and was imprisoned by the Shah’s regime until 1979, shortly before the return of Khomeini to Iran

- observers agree that the People’s Mujahedin of Iran has a strong personality cult centred around Massoud and Maryam Majavi

- the People’s Mujahedin of Iran played a major role in bringing about the 1979 revolution, using its Muslim identity to mobilize students, workers, and, most importantly, young army officers, behind the Revolution - the party’s daily newspaper, Mojahed, had a daily circulation of 600,000

- however, this did not stop Khomeini from seeing the People’s Mujahedin as a threat and moving to suppress them - between 1979 and 1981, 3,000 supporters of the People’s Mujahedin were arrested

- the People’s Mujahedin arranged a massive protest against Khomeini on June 20, ten days after Khomeini assumed the responsibilities of Commander-in-Chief, and the day before the Majlis voted to impeach Banisadr - Khomeini ordered the police to shoot into the crowd, and hundreds of protesters were killed and later that night, hundreds more were summarily executed in Evin Prison

- so, that’s the background to them being all mad and moving against Beheshti, Rajai, and Bahonar

- Rajavi flees to France with Banisadr and remains there until 1986, when he relocates to Iraq

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President 1981-1989

- the Islamic Republic Party now had three martyrs - the man who was most closely associated with those three in the public mind was Ali Khamenei, who himself narrowly escaped from an assassination attempt in June 1981, making him a “living martyr” in the eyes of many

- Khomeini now changed his mind and agreed to let Khamenei run for president even though he was a cleric - Khamenei went on to win 95% of the popular vote in the election in October 1981

- background on Khamenei: Khamenei is an Azeri, an ethnic minority in Iran (most Azeris live in Azerbaijan) - from a religious family, Khamenei attended the Shi’a academy at Najaf, Iraq in 1957, before moving on to the academy at Qom in 1958 - we’ve mentioned Qom a couple of times now - here’s a big shrine in Qom:

- at Qom, Khamenei studied with Khomeini and another prominent Shi’a cleric, Grand Ayatollah Seyyid Hossein Borujerdi, seen here:

- Khamenei was briefly imprisoned during the 1963 anti-Shah activities, but released soon thereafter and took up a life as a religious teacher

- Khamenei was generally a low-key player throughout the Islamic Revolution, although he maintained his contacts with Khomeini, his old teacher

- in autumn 1979, Khomeini appointed Khamenei to the prestigious post of Tehran’s Friday Prayer Leader - he inserted the “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” chants at the end of the Prayers

- in late 1980 / early 1981, Khamenei made a series of well-publicized trips to visit troops at the battlefront, a habit he would keep up as president, see, e.g.

- with the election of Khamenei to the presidency in 1981, Khomeini now had a figure who was closely associated with himself in a key role - Khomeini and Khamenei would remain close allies, tightly linked in the public’s mind, for the rest of Khomeini’s life - Khamenei loved appearing in public alongside the Supreme Leader:

- Khamenei appointed as his prime minister another ethnic Azeri, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, seen here in 2005:

- major events of Khamenei’s term as president: (1) continuation of the futile war with Iraq long after anyone reasonable would have ended it - Khomeini says it’s the principle and it doesn’t matter how many people die - terrible; (2) the continuation of the Islamic Cultural Revolution, outlined above; (3) the eventual expulsion of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran in 1986 - they go to Iraq, then try to mount an invasion, for which see above, but that doesn’t work out

Excursus on US-Iranian Relations During the Latter Part of the Iran-Iraq War

- as noted earlier, during the Tanker War phase of the Iran-Iraq War, both nations attacked each other’s oil tankers, and often went ahead and attacked the oil tankers of neutral countries in the Persian Gulf

- as a result, from July 24, 1987 to September 26, 1988, the US Navy began Operation Earnest Will, whereby US Navy ships accompanied Kuwaiti tankers to ensure they were not attacked

- now, of course, as we noted earlier, Iran had been mining the Persian Gulf - here we see an American sailor scanning for mines as part of Operation Earnest Will:

- however, for whatever reason, the binoculars weren’t good enough on April 14, 1988, and the USS Samuel B.  Roberts ran into a mine - here’s the USS Samuel B.  Roberts:

- Navy divers then discovered more mines in the area - and, since the US had previously captured the Iranian minelayer Iran Ajr (see above), they were able to identify the mines as Iranian

- as a result, the US launched Operation Praying Mantis - in the largest US naval engagement since World War II, the US destroyed 2 Iranian warships and 3 speedboats - in this photo we see the destruction of the Iranian Frigate IS Sahand:

- shortly after Operation Praying Mantis, on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down a commercial Iranian air flight, Iran Air Flight 655, killing 290 civilian passengers, including 66 children

- most Iranians assumed that this was a deliberate targeting of Iranian civilians as part of the US’s ongoing operations against Iran

- the US has never provided a totally plausible explanation as to why Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down

- this is the USS Vincennes:

- this is a CG of Iran Air Flight 655:

- a US government spokesman claimed that the Vincennes believed it was under attack from an F-14 Tomcat, one of which is seen here:

- Iranians were outraged, saying that Iran Air Flight 655 looked nothing like an F-14A Tomcat

- the Iranian government condemned the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 as a “barbaric act”

- despatched to explain the American position at the United Nations, Vice President George Bush commented at an August 2, 1988 news conference “I will never apologize for the United States - I don’t care what the facts are” - this further outraged Iranians

- Iranians’ outrage grew when the US Navy awarded the personnel of the USS Vincennes combat action ribbons, and the officer responsible for the attack won the Navy’s Commendation Medal for “heroic achievement” for his “poise and confidence under fire” (though they obviously weren’t under fire)

- the Iranians went on to express their outrage in postage stamp form:

One More Excursus Before the Death of Khomeini: The Rushdie Fatwa

- this is Salman Rushdie:

- Rushdie’s background: born in 1947 to a Muslim family in Bombay, India (his father was a Cambridge-educated lawyer); educated in England at Rugby and Cambridge, where he majors in History; goes and works in advertising (including at the prestigious advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather) before deciding to dedicate himself to writing full time; married four times, currently being married to the host of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi, seen here with her hubby:

- but anyhow, Padma was not yet on the scene when Rushdie started to write - his second novel, Midnight’s Children, a magical realist novel about the fate of India and Pakistan in the wake of the Partition was received to critical acclaim, and Rushdie won the 1981 Booker Prize; continues to focus on Pakistan with his 1983 novel Shame (close runner-up for the 1983 Booker Prize); in 1987 travels to Nicaragua (though not accompanied by Ollie North) and writes a nonfiction account of the Nicaraguan Civil War, The Jaguar Smile; then in 1988, comes his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses

- so basically, every book Rushdie writes really ticks off someone: Midnight’s Children angered Indira Ghandi because she was portrayed as causing her husband’s death; Shame angered the Bhutto family for its harsh portrayal of their role in Pakistani politics; and The Jaguar Smile angered the Americans because it was harshly critical of US involvement in Nicaragua; now, it was time for Rushdie to make the Supreme Leader angry

- background on “the Satanic Verses”: the term “Satanic Verses” was coined by British-Indian administrator and famed Orientalist Sir William Muir to refer to several verses which the Prophet Muhammad initially included in the Koran, but then removed from future editions of the Koran (the story is found in the works of some Muslim historians starting in the 8th century) - the Satanic Verses read:

            Have you thought of Allat and al-Uzza and Manat, the third, the

            other?  These are the exalted Gharaniq, whose intercession is

            hoped for.

- umm - ok - so what the heck does that mean??  well, Allat, al-Uzza and Manat were three local Meccan deities, and Gharaniq are high-flying cranes

- basically the verses seem to involve Muhammad backing away from his staunch monotheism, acknowledging that these other deities exist, and claiming that these other deities can be used to intercede with Allah - and the fact that in the story Muhammad (who normally wrote at the inspiration of the Angel Gabriel) wrote the verses under the inspiration of Satan - although he later realized this and withdrew them - would seem to call into question all of the Prophet’s revelation - the story of the Satanic Verses has therefore been a major issue that Muslim scholars need to get around

- the story of the Satanic Verses forms a subplot of The Satanic Verses

- there was also a whole ton of other things in the book that were (deliberately) offensive to Muslims

- The Satanic Verses was published by Viking in September 1989 - by the end of October, the book had been banned in India; in November, it was banned in Bangladesh, Sudan, and South Africa; in December in Sri Lanka; and in March 1989 in Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Singapore

- the furore that the book unleashed was fueled by often inaccurate or exaggerated reports about the book’s contents

- in February 1989, there was a 10,000-man strong anti-Rushdie demonstration in Islamabad, Pakistan, in front of the American Cultural Center - 6 people were killed in the course of the demonstration

- following the Islamabad demonstration, Khomeini decided to get in on the action that was sweeping the Muslim world - as such, on February 14, 1989, he issued his infamous fatwa:

        In the name of God the Almighty. We belong to God and to Him we shall return.

        I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book

        Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to

        Islam, the Prophet, and the Qor'an, and those publishers who were aware of its

        contents, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them

        quickly, where they find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic

        sanctities. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing.

        In addition, if anyone has access to the author of the book but does not possess the

        power to execute him, he should point him out to the people so that he may be

         punished for his actions. May God's blessing be on you all.

                                Rullah Musavi al-Khomeini

- wow!

- well, Rushdie was always a bit of a provocateur, but he certainly never meant to stir up this much trouble - hearing reports that President Ali Khamenei had said that the Supreme Leader might lift the fatwa if Rushdie apologized, Rushdie issued a formal apology on February 19, 1989, five days after Khomeini’s fatwa - Khomeini, however, refused the apology, saying “Even if Salman Rushdie repents and become the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell.” - wow!

- so, what the heck was Khomeini thinking?  there are a number of plausible explanations: 1) he took advantage of disaffection in the Muslim world at Rushdie’s book to draw the boundary lines between Islam and the West in starker terms than ever; 2) Khomeini’s attempt to invade Iraq had failed and the war ended in stalemate in July-August 1988 - thus in early 1989, Khomeini was looking for a cause to channel his country’s discontent; 3) the Iran-Iraq War had highlighted Sunni-Shia tensions more than ever before - Khomeini was now searching for an issue that could unite Muslims of all denominations against a common enemy; 4) the fatwa occurred the day before the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a major triumph for Khomeini’s enemies, Saudi Arabia and the US - Khomeini wanted to distract from the Saudi-American triumph, but also to emphasize to the Muslim world that, though the Soviets were retreating, they still faced a western imperialist enemy; 5) part of a struggle against Saudi Arabia for leadership of the Muslim world, which contrasts Iran’s anti-Western Islamic credentials with Saudi Arabia’s pro-American regime; 6) the book contains 11 pages which contain an unflattering sketch of Khomeini’s stay in Paris

- as a result of the fatwa, Great Britain broke diplomatic ties with Iran

- March 1989 saw a wave of violence in the west, directed against booksellers in the UK and the US, and particularly targeting anyone involved in translating the book into foreign languages - Muslim groups in the west also organized public burnings of the book

- Khomeini’s fatwa is still in effect and the Iranian government reaffirms its commitment to the fatwa each February 14, an action that Rushdie refers to as his “annual Valentine from the Iranian government”

- here’s a picture of a younger Rushdie at the time, holding up his controversial book:

Supreme Leader the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 1989-Present

- Khomeini died on June 3, 1989

- on June 4, in accordance with the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, the Assembly of Experts met to elect a new Supreme Leader - here’s a photo of the Assembly of Experts:

- there was little doubt that the Assembly would elect the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had served as President of Iran under Khomeini since 1981 as the new Supreme Leader - the only real hitch was that Khamenei had never actually become a marja, entitling him to be called “Grand Ayatollah” (Sayyid) instead of simply “Ayatollah”, whereas the Iranian Constitution required the Supreme Leader to be a marja - as such the Assembly of Experts initially named Khamenei as a temporary office holder, and they then initiated the necessary process for amending the Constitution to allow a non-marja to hold the Supreme Leadership - the Society of Seminary Teachers at Qom would eventually make Khamenei a marja in 1994 - thus before 1994, he is “Ayatollah Khamenei” - from 1994 on, he is “Grand Ayatollah Khamenei”

- Khamenei saw his Supreme Leadership as a continuation of Khomeini’s - he made no attempt to distance himself from the Supreme Leader, and their images continued to be displayed together (or, in retrospect, that looks more like Montazeri, hmm - ::

- nor did he attempt to distance himself from the Iran-Iraq War (which, after all, he had largely prosecuted as President) - here we see him at the tomb of General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, a major commander during the war:

- he does do his best to appear pious - here he is studying the Koran:

- here he is leading Friday Prayers in 2004 (recall that his first job after the Revolution was as Friday prayer leader in Tehran):

- he can often be seen meditating:

- and praying, of course:

- and, like the previous Supreme Leader, he loves his family:

- so that’s his image - now let’s look at what’s happened in Iran since he’s been Supreme Leader

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, President 1989-1997

- with Khamenei taking over as Supreme Leader, Iran needed a new President - elections were held in August 1989, and the new President was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

- also, at the same time the Constitution was amended to allow Khamenei to become Supreme Leader, it was amended to abolish the post of prime minister - so we’ll stop talking about them now - henceforth, it’s all about the president

- Rafsanjani’s background: sent by his parents to the seminary at Qom in 1948 (when he was 14 years old) - studied Islamic law, ethics, and mysticism under Khomeini at Qom - from this youthful bond, he would be a dedicated follower of Khomeini for the rest of his life; following the White Revolution in 1963, Rafsanjani takes an active part in anti-Shah activities, and is jailed 15 times in the period 1964-79; in 1979, he initially serves as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Council, and was instrumental in founding the Islamic Republic Party - he is soon elected as Speaker of the Majlis, a post which he held until running for the presidency - he was one of the Iranians active on the Iranian side during the Iran-Contra Affair - in 1988, Khamenei appointed Rafsanjani as Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces - Rafsanjani was a moderate within the Iranian administration, and argued against prolonging the Iran-Iraq War and was the driving force in the administration in favour of accepting the UN Security Council Resolution that ended the war

- Rafsanjani’s election as president marks a movement towards greater moderation in Iran - he favoured a policy of economic liberalization and increased ties with other countries

- during the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) - between two of Iran’s enemies, Iraq and the US - Iran stayed neutral, though it did accept many Iraqi refugees and condemned both Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the US’s movements against Iraq

Minor Excursus on Iran’s Kurds

- as we saw earlier, the Kurds have been one of the ethnic groups constantly wanting to break away from Iran - let’s review the major ethnic groups of Iran and the Kurds’ place within Iran:

- so the Kurds are mainly found in the northwest of Iran - though about 700,000 are found in the northeastern province of Khorasan - that’s because in the 17th century, they were forcibly resettled there by Shah Abbas I, seen here:

- review:

- 1880: Kurds revolt against Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar - revolt crushed

- post World War I: Kurds, under Simko Shikak set up a Kurdish state, which lasts until 1922 when it is crushed - Simko Shikak ultimately executed by government of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1930

- 1946: the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad declares independence - crushed by troops of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

- post-1953 coup: the Shah cracks down on ethnic minorities, including the Kurds

- 1979: Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declares a jihad against the Kurds

- here we see a Pulitzer-prize-winning photograph of Iranian troops executing Kurds in August 1979:

- 1983: the Iranian government finally subdued Kurdish unrest and gains total control of Iranian Kurdistan, though unrest continued into 1990s

Merging this Back into Rafsanjani

- September 1992: 3 prominent Kurdish-Iranian separatist leaders are assassinated at the Mykonos Greek Restaurant in Berlin - here is the restaurant:

- and here is a plaque commemorating the victims:

- the attacks were carried out by 1 Iranian and 3 Lebanese men - but in 1997, a German court determined that the attack had been ordered by Iran’s Intelligence Minister Hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian (note: “Hojatoleslam” is an honorific used by all Shia clerics - the equivelant of “Rev.” - it means “authority on Islam”) - here’s what Fallahian looks like:

- the court found that Fallahian had ordered the killings with the full knowledge and support of President Rafsanjani and Supreme Leader Khamenei - the court issued an international arrest warrant for Fallahian but he has never been arrested

- while we’re on the subject of Fallahian, might he have done anything particularly odious outside of Iran?  well, maybe - Argentinian prosecutors  for accused him of ordering a bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aries in 1994 (along with his contacts in Hezbollah) - but during the case, the accused were acquitted - so it’s unclear if he actually did that or not

- come on, Fallahian must have done something else bad, right?  actually, we did leave out one thing from 1990 - remember Massoud and Maryam Rajavi?  (they were the leaders of the People’s Mujahdin of Iran, which helped Ruhollah Khomeini come to power, but then they had a falling out and they assassinated a bunch of Iranian leaders in 1980 and tried to kill Ali Khamenei - and then they supported Saddam Hussein with troops that tried invading Iran in 1989) - well this is Massoud’s brother, Kazem Rajavi (at least I think this is him - it was hard to find a picture):

- so the Rajavi family and the People’s Mujahedin maintain an Iranian government-in-exile called the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Kazem Rajavi is a member of this group

- in 1990, members of Iran’s Ministry of Inielligence and Security (Fallahian’s ministry) assassinate Kazem Rajavi in broad daylight in Geneva

- needless to say, this upsets the Swiss, and they also issue an arrest warrant against Fallahian

- but anyhow, the broader takeaway point is: in the years immediately after Khamenei becomes Supreme Leader and Rafsanjani becomes president, they are assassinating their major internal opponents - leaders of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran and of the Kurdish resistance - in Europe - this further contributes to the regime’s reputation as a rogue state

Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright’s Approach to Iran

- 1994: Clinton declares Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism”

- why did he do this? - the following is a list of things that Iran has done which the US government considers “state sponsorship of terrorism”

1)  the Ministry of Intelligence and Security actions in Berlin and Geneva discussed above

2)  there is speculation that MOIS aided Muslim forces in Bosnia (though since they were being massacred, this is perhaps forgivable)

3) the Revolutionary Guards (esp. the al-Quds force is alleged to supply aid to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad to conduct terrorist activities in Israel)

- so we saw above the links between Iran and the founding of Hezbollah - Hezbollah becomes the major Shia force in the Lebanese Civil War - the US estimates that Iran gives Hezbollah $60-100 million annually - here’s a list of objectionable things that Hezbollah has done: a) bombed US embassy in Beirut in 1983; b) attacked US marine barracks in Lebanon, also in 1983; c) highjacked TWA Flight 847 in 1985 - there were 39 Americans on board; d) bombed Israeli Embassy in 1992; and e) allegedly participated in the bombing of the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aries in 1994

- it is generally clear that Hezbollah checks with the Iranian government before they do anything - Iran has to sign off before Hezbollah does something big

- the links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad are a little less clear to me - this is a little off-topic, but let’s just briefly pause to trace the genealogies of both of those organizations:

Excursus on Hamas and Islamic Jihad

- preliminary note: “Islamic Jihad” is too broad - we need to distinguish between the 1) Lebanese; 2) Egyptian; and 3) Palestinian Islamic Jihad;  - the Lebanese Islamic Jihad Organization was a Shia group related to Hezbollah whereas the Egyptian and Palestinian Islamic Jihads are Sunni organizations both descended from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - though to make things confusing, during the 1980s there was a Lebanese Shia group that called themselves “Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine”

- in general, when people talk about Islamic Jihad, they are speaking of the Sunni organizations - usually Egyptian, but more recently also the Palestinian

- both Hamas and the Sunni Islamic Jihads are descended from the Muslim Brotherhood

- what’s the Muslim Brotherhood?

- well, this is Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood:

- founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to working politically to restore the caliphate (abolished 4 years previously by Atatürk in 1924) and maintain the role of sharia law in Muslim society (which was being replaced by Western law all over the Muslim world in this period - remember our discussion of the Persian Empire in this period)

- the Muslim Brotherhood is active throughout the entire Islamic world - it is anti-colonialist, and anti-western and opposes regimes that side with the West

- however, the Muslim Brotherhood has (with a few exceptions) always condemned the use of violence to achieve its ends and has rejected terrorism as a method

- the Egyptian Islamic Jihad breaks away from the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1970s, seeking more effective means of restoring the caliphate - e.g. in 1981, they assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Sadat - they later try to assassinate Hosni Mubarak - the Egyptian government hates these guys

- Palestinian Islamic Jihad is organized in the Gaza Strip shortly after the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and is committed to using all necessary means - including terrorism - to liberate the Palestinians and create a Muslim state in Palestine

- here are the founders of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine - Fathi Shaqaqi (assassinated by Israeli Mossad forces in 1995):

- and Abd Al Aziz Awda (a.k.a. Sheikh Odeh):

- Palestinian Islamic Jihad ultimately sets up shop in Damascus and reportedly receives funding from the Iranian government

- Hamas (a.k.a. the Islamic Resistance Movement) was a separate off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1987 during the First Intifada by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a man whose charisma was partially linked to the fact that he was a blind parapalegic (Muslims have an especial reverence for blind people):

- here he is in 2004, shortly before his assassination by Israeli Mossad forces (go talk to Gabriella Blum if you want more information on why a blind paraplegic had to be assassinated):

- during the First Intifada (1987-1993), Hamas develops the technique of suicide bombings which prove so frightening to Israelis and the West

- Hamas’s charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, to be replaced by an Islamic state

- Hamas’s funding mainly comes from Saudi Arabia, though I guess the US alleges that Iran is involved too

Back to Clinton

- it seems to me that it was probably the link to Hezbollah that Clinton had most in mind when he designated Iran as a state supporter of terror

- May 1995: Clinton issues Executive Order 12,957, placing tight oil and trade sanctions on Iran and executive Order 12,959, banning almost all trade between US businesses and Iran

- however, Clinton also tried to move towards rapprochement with Iran - in 1996, the US government agreed to pay compensation to the victims of Iran Air Flight 655 - though without the US admitting responsibility

- 1996: the US issues a statement which can be read as an apology for American involvement in the 1953 coup against Mossadegh

Did Anything Else Happen While Rafsanjani Was President?

- here we see Rafsanjani, older, more contemplative:

- his presidency saw the founding of Azad University

- but economically, times were rough - the inflation rate at one point hits 49% under Rafsanjani - of course, the tightening economic sanctions don’t help

- he was also notoriously corrupt - his “privatization” of Iran led to him and his family having deep involvement in Iran’s oil industry - at one point he was on Forbes’ list of wealthiest men in the world - he puts his son in charge of the state-owned Gaz Iran Co., where he allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes

- having won reelection in 1993, come 1997, Rafsanjani (a centrist Islamist) was opposed by the reformist Mohammad Khatami - upon losing the election, Rafsanjani relinquished power peacefully

Mohammad Khatami, President 1997-2005

 

- Khatami’s background: born in 1943 in Yazd province:

- Yazd is historically important as the sight of Zoroastrianism, and you can still see important Zoroastrian temples in the province, e.g.:

 

- also the home of great medieval castles, such as:

- as well as great medieval mosques, such as:

- as a young man, Khatami travels to neighbouring Isfahan province:

- there he attends the University of Isfahan, a university founded in 1946 - from the photos on its website, it looks like the University of Isfahan could be located in New England:

- Khatami received a B.A. in Western Philosophy

- what can you do with a philosophy degree?  absolutely nothing - so, he moved on the University of Tehran to study Education - ahh, teaching, everyone’s fallback position

- he then changes his mind and moves to Qom - you can’t expect Iran to have a leader who hasn’t passed through either Najaf or Qom, after all - he studies theology for 7 years at Qom, becoming a mujthahid, the equivalent of a doctorate in Islamic theology

- he then moved to Germany where he chaired the Islamic Center in Hamburg, one of the leading Islamic mosques / cultural centres in Germany - here’s a picture of it:

- Khatami was in Hamburg when the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1979 - like so many of his countrymen, he was elated that the despotic Shah had finally been overthrown - and like so many clerics, he happily returned to Iran, being elected to the first post-revolutionary Majlis in 1980

- in 1982, he became Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance - inter alia, this made him supervisor of the Khayan Institute, an organization which publishes a daily newspaper formerly associated with the Shah’s regime but now widely seen as the mouthpiece of the Supreme Leader - he was also a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the committee which oversaw the Iranian Cultural Revolution, which saw the educational system purged of western influences (though presumably you can still get a B.A. in Western Philosophy?)

- oh, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but in 1987, the Islamic Republic Party - which had been pretty much the only party in the country was dissolved - it was replaced by two parties, the Combatant Clergy Association (a conservative party of which Rafsanjani was a member) and the Association of Combatant Clerics (a left-wing reformist party) - at this point, Khatami sides with the Association of Combatant Clerics over against the Combatant Clergy Association and leaves the cabinet

- in 1989, Rafsanjani - a conservative, but a centrist conservative, invites Khatami to return to the cabinet as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance - Khatami accepts

- 1992: Khatami resigns from cabinet and takes a post as head of the National Library of Iran, one building of which is seen here:

 - a bit of a step down from the Islamic Centre in Hamburg, if you ask me, but you gotta do what you gotta do

- as already mentioned, in 1997, he opposed Rafsanjani in the general election, promising major reforms and finding particular support among women and young voters

- this must be one of the few times in history an individual has moved from the post of Head Librarian to president of a country

- Khatami was elected on May 22, 1997, which is the 2nd of Khordad, 1376 (according to the bizarre Iranian calendar) - his election marks the beginning of a reform movement known as the 2nd of Khordad Movement

- the 2nd of Khordad Movement involved:

1) the Association of Combatant Clerics, headed by Mohammad Khatami, a cleric-dominated party founded in 1988 following the dissolution of the Islamic Republic Party

2) the Islamic Iran Participation Front - a new organization founded in 1998 as part of the 2nd of Khordad movement - here is a picture of delegates at its founding:

- the Islamic Iran Participation Front wanted greater levels of participatory democracy in Iran

- it was headed by Mohammad Khatami’s brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, seen here:   

- Mohammad-Reza Khatami is married to the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi:

- Zahra Eshraghi is one of Iran’s leading feminists who campaigns for changes in Iranian society, including the ending of mandatory headscarves and control of husbands over their wives

3) the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization - a smaller political party

- the leading thinker behind the 2nd of Khordad movement was this man, Saeed Hajjarian:

- Hajjarian’s background: educated as a mechanical engineer at the University of Tehran; participates in the student portion of the Iranian Revolution; works for the Ministry of Intelligence in the 1980s, rising to the position of Vice Minister of Political Affairs; in the late 1980s, he establishes the Institute for Strategic Studies, a high-level think tank that advises the Iranian president - while there, he becomes convinced of the necessity of the Rule of Law and democracy and rejecting the primacy of religion within the Iranian constitution - he becomes one of Khatami’s key advisors in 1997-98

- a second major reformist thinker of the 2nd of Khordad movement was Abdolkarim Soroush, seen here doing what foreigners love best, posing in front of Widener:

- Soroush is a philosopher of religion - his major work, The Theoretical Expansion and Contraction of Shari’a distinguishes between “religion” and “our understanding of religion” - “religion” is objective, but beyond human reach, eternal, and divine - “our understanding of religion” is subjective, based on authentic religious experience, but finite, limited, and fallible - his philosophy thus provides a way to decrease the role of religion in Iranian life

- so, with the intellectual backing and party structure in place, it was time for the 2nd of Khordad Movement to begin its major reforms to promote civil society and the Rule of Law

- principles of the reforms of the 2nd of Khordad Movement:

1)    free elections for the Tehran city council

2)    heightened rhetoric at the ideas of civil society and the rule of law

3) commitment to only pursue reforms through legal and constitutional channels

4) calling on people to criticize those high in authority, including the Supreme Leader

5) ending press censorship and allowing newspapers to express a wide variety of views

6) reopening European embassies

7) reorganizing the Ministry of Intelligence and Security

8) initiating interfaith dialogue within Iran and between Iran and the rest of the world

- the conservatives were not impressed with this reform programme in the least - and they weren’t going to take things lying down - the 8 years of Khatami’s presidency mark a period of intense political rivalry - Khatami once remarked that his administration faced a major crisis “every 9 days” - let’s go over a few of those:

The Chain Murder of Iranian Intellectuals, 1998 - in 1998-99, a number of leading Iranian intellectuals were murdered, including Dariush Forouhar:

and his wife Parvenah Forouhar:

- the Forouhars were the head Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran (the Party of the Iranian Nation) - Dariush Forouhar had founded Mellat in 1951 as a pan-Iranian nationalist party in opposition to the Shah and in favour of Mossedegh - although political parties were later banned under the Shah, Mellat continued to exist as a grassroots organization - after the Revolution, they remained a group dedicated to separation of religion and state

- in 1998, the Forouhars were found murdered in their home in Tehran

- several weeks later, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that the murders had been carried out by Saeed Emami:

- Emami’s background: born Daniyal Ghavami to a wealthy Jewish family in Shiraz, Iran in 1959 - studies aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University - then gets a job at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C. for a year, followed up by a year with the Iranian delegation to the United Nations - during this period he is recruited by Iranian intelligence and returns to Iran to work for the Ministry of Intelligence - he applies for a vice-ministerial post, but is rejected by Saeed Hajjarian because of his family background - when Ali Fallahian becomes minister, however, he promoted Emami

- the Ministry of Intelligence thus admitted that it was a “rogue element” who had committed the murder - though Emami quickly committed suicide in prison, so we don’t know his side of the story - there was some indication that the Minister of Intelligence, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi was aware of the murder and he had to resign

- in 1999, a series of articles by Saeed Hajjarian and his collaborator journalist Akbar Ganji reported that Emami had been responsible for: a) the mysterious death of Iranian poet Ali-Akbar Saidi Sirjani; b) the Mykonos Restaurant assassinations in Berlin; c) an unsuccessful attempt to throw a bus carrying 21 journalists off a cliff; d) the mysterious death of Ruhollah Khomeini’s son Ahmad Khomeini in 1994; e) a series of murders of other Iranian dissident writers

Violence Against Khatami’s Cabinet - following a Friday prayer service, Minister of the Interior Abdollah Noori and Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ata’ollah Mohajerani were beaten by the crowd of the faithful - here’s a picture of Mohajerani:

Attempted Impechment of Mohajerani - didn’t work out, although he did later resign

Impeachment and Trial of Noori - the conservatives in the Majlis were successful in impeaching Noori - and he was then hauled before a Special Clerical Court where he was accused of insulting Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, publishing anti-religious materials, disturbing public opinion, insulting officials, and advocating closer ties with the US - he was convicted and sentenced to five years in the dreaded Evin Prison - here he is on his way to the prison after his trial:

Student Riots, 18th of Tir- in July 1999, peaceful protests began in opposition to the closure of a reformist newspaper associated with President Khatami - protests spread to Tehran University - then in comes the Basij (the student auxiliary to the Revolutionary Guards, founded during the Revolution) and the Ansar-e Hezbollah (an ultraconservative group) who start attacking the students - this led to a full week of student riots in Tehran, with the violence spreading to other universities, most notably Tabriz University - several people were, of course, killed

- here we see police squaring off against students:

- and more students rioting:

- of course, these were followed up by conservative rallies, opposing the students’ lawlessness:

- but what is really significant is that we’ve now come full circle - in 1979, students were in the forefront of the Iranian Revolution - now, 20 years later, students are rioting in opposition to the regime established by the Revolution and in favour of the reformist president Khatami

Attempted Assassination of Saeed Hajjarian - Saeed Hajjarian, the mastermind behind the 2nd of Khordad Movement had been elected to the Tehran City Council in 1999, the first free elections for the city council since the revolution - he had also been exposing the evils the regime had committed via that unsavoury character Saeed Emami - now, in March 2000, he was shot in the face at his home by a member of the Basij

- here’s a photo of Hajjarian in the hospital:

- miraculously, the assassin’s bullet passed through his left cheek and lodged in his neck - Hajjarian lives!

- in this photo, we see the attempted assassin, Saeed Asgar (standing) and his accomplices at their trial for the attempted murder of Hajjarian:

- though convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, Asgar was released after serving only a fraction of his sentence

Closing of Reformist Newspapers - the conservative hardliners now hit back using their censorship rights given by the Iranian Constitution - 30 reformist newspapers which had opened under Khatami’s presidency were shut down, a move which some political analysts described as a “silent coup” against Khatami

- with all the backlash he was provoking, Khatami must have been discouraged when it came time to run for re-election in 2001

- he nevertheless remained immensely popular with the Iranian people, who were incredibly supportive of his reforms - as you can tell by the reaction he’s getting from this crowd:   

- so he’s eventually re-elected in June 2001 with 77% of the popular vote (vs. 9 more conservative candidates)

Foreign Relations During Khatami’s First Term

- this is Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntingdon:

- and this is Huntingdon’s most famous book:

- the book was published in 1996, and was an expansion of an article he had written in Foreign Affairs in 1993

- in both the article and the book he was responding to Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” thesis - that after the Cold War, there was no major conflict left in the world

- Huntingdon’s “Clash of Civilizations” thesis responded that, au contraire, there would be a lot of conflict in the 21st century, but it would be religious and cultural conflict, as opposed to the political conflict of the 20th century

- he divided the world up into a few major cultures:

- and then provided us with a nifty visual showing how the cultures would come into conflict:

- note how in his graph, Islamic culture is coming into major conflict with Hindu, African, Western, and Orthodox cultures - ouch

- Khatami read Huntingdon’s book (or perhaps a précis of the book) and was disturbed - no good reformist wants that much conflict

- Khatami now opposed a counter-thesis to Huntingdon’s, which would serve as a programme for civilizational interaction in the 21st century - he titled his book Dialogue Among Civilizations and argued that the 21st century should see increasing dialogue among cultures in order to avoid conflict

- his idea proved so popular that the United Nations even declared 2001 the year for Dialogue Among Civilizations - they love their slogans at the UN

- so what did he do?

- well, Bill Clinton proved a receptive audience, semi-apologizing for the anti-Mossadegh coup - soon, the US and Iran were initiating sports exchanges (first wrestling, then soccer)

- putting his money where his mouth is, Khatami became the first Iranian president since the Revolution to visit the west - in this emblematic photo, we see a President of Iran meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1999:

 

- and here he is meeting Jacques Chirac in Paris in 1999:

- and in 2001, he returned to Germany, where he had once been the chair of the Islamic Centre in Hamburg - here’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder showing Khatami off to the media:

- he also visited Japan, Russia, Algeria, and Venezuela

- given this spirit of reaching out to the West, Bill Clinton did offer to have a dialogue with Khatami and to normalize diplomatic relations, but the Supreme Leader Khamenei insisted that before Iran could enter into dialogue with the US, the US would have to meet the following conditions: 1) formally withdraw its support for Israel; 2) lift the sanctions imposed in 1995; 3) stop accusing the Iranian regime of seeking nuclear weapons; and 4) state that Iran was not a “state sponsor of terrorism”  - note that of these 4 demands, 3 were Clinton administration policies, not longstanding US practice - Clinton considered these 3 demands, but in the end, of course, the US wasn’t going to withdraw its support for Israel, so the offer ultimately went nowhere

- the US did however lighten the sanctions in 2000 and withdraw the recommendation that Americans shouldn’t travel to Iran

On to Khatami’s Second Term, 2001-2005

- the first major event of Khatami’s second term was, of course, 9/11

- Khatami issued a statement saying

        On behalf of the Iranian government and the nation, I condemn the hijacking

        attempts and terrorist attacks on public centers in American cities which have

        killed a large number of innocent people...My deep sympathy goes out to the

        American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also

        the families of the victims...terrorism is doomed and the international community

        should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it

- for the first time since the Iranian Revolution, the chants of “Death to America” were omitted from the Friday Prayers in Tehran   

- Supreme Leader Khamenei echoed the sentiment, saying: “Mass killing is wrong, whether it's Hiroshima, Bosnia, New York, or Washington” - though note the anti-US jab by including reference to Hiroshima and Bosnia

- in Tehran, Iranians held a candlelight vigil in honour of the 9/11 dead - the vigil was especially well-attended by those with pro-Khatami, pro-reformist sympathies, especially the young - see, e.g.:

- here is a painting from a young Iranian artist commemorating the vigil:

- three weeks later, on October 7, 2001, the US invaded Iran’s neighbour, Afghanistan

- as you will recall, Afghanistan had historic links with Iran, having once been part of the Persian Empire - however, the Afghans refused to convert to Shia Islam and starting in the mid-18th century gain their independence - however, note that Persian remains the most widely-spoken language in Afghanistan:

- and although the majority of the population is Sunni, 15% of the population is Shia - and when the Taliban gained power in Afghanistan in 1996, the Shiite opposition groups were their fiercest opponents

- naturally, these Shiite groups looked to Iran for leadership

- most of these Shiite groups had banded together (and with some non-Shiite groups) in 1996 to form a united front against the Taliban regime, the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (a.k.a. the Northern Alliance)

- major Shiite components of the Northern Alliance include: 1) the Hezbe Wahdat; 2) the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan; and 3) the Islamic Dawah Organization of Afghanistan - yes, of course there’s a Dawah party in Afghanistan too - where there are Shia, there is a Dawah Party

- these groups had all been part of the Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen (a.k.a. the Peshawar Seven) who had been backed by the US during the Soviet-Afghan War

- Iran encouraged the Shiite groups in the Northern Alliance to support the US in its invasion of Afghanistan

- January 2002: President George W.  Bush delivers his State of the Union address in which he delivers his “Axis of Evil” remarks - here he is giving the speech:

- here’s the full text of what he had to say about the Axis of Evil:

            [Our goal] is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror

             from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of

            mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since

            September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a

            regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while

             starving its citizens.

            Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an

            unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.

            Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror.

            The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and

            nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already

            used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens—leaving the

            bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime

            that agreed to international inspections—then kicked out the inspectors.

            This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.   

            States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil,

            arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass

            destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could

            provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their

            hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United

            States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

- the Iranian people’s reaction was predictable and is shown in this photo:

- Ayatollah Khamenei denounced Bush’s speech as “bloodthirsty”; Khatami denounced it as “meddling, warmongering, insulting, and a repetition of old propaganda”

- from this point on, the reformist sentiment in Iran, which had been pro-US, moves in an anti-US direction - a common enemy is the one thing that the reformists and hardline conservatives can agree on

- the debate between conservatives and reformists went on within Iran though

- in September 2002, Khatami introduces the Twin Bills, proposing minor but symbolically significant reforms: one of the bills would limit the role of the Guardian Council, while the other would give the president the ability to prevent constitutional violations by state institutions (he obviously had the Ministry of Intelligence on his mind here)

- the Twin Bills pass the Majlis easily, but are rejected by the Guardian Council - Khatami accepts this, having determined to pursue reforms through constitutional means only

- some of Khatami’s supporters, especially the young, start to question his commitment to reform within the boundaries of the Islamic Constitution - after all, the conservatives don’t play by the rules - they are constantly sending in their goons to beat us up, so why shouldn’t we overthrow them? - Khatami doesn’t listen to these critics and sticks by his principles

- so, we’ve only started to scratch the surface of intellectuals being harassed, but let’s look at one more, since he was particularly controversial within Iran - this is Hashem Aghajari:

- Aghajari is disabled because of injuries he sustained fighting for Iran during the Iran-Iraq War - he’s basically the Max Cleland of Iranian politics - Aghajari is a history professor in Tehran, and an active member of the Organization of the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution, the smaller reformist party involved in the 2nd of Khordad Movement - he publishes history in which he argues that the original, historic Islam was markedly different from the way in which Islam is practiced in Iran today - he also says that people shouldn’t be led around by clerics “like monkeys” - his publications lead conservatives to denounce him as “Iran’s Salman Rushdie” and in 2002 he goes on trial for apostasy - here we see him defending himself at his trial:

- apparently he didn’t have a very good lawyer - verdict: guilty - sentence: death

- Aghajari’s death sentence sets off another round of student-led protests - all of this pressure leads to the ultimate intervention of Supreme Leader Khamenei who orders a new trial - this takes place in 2003, and Aghajari’s sentence is ultimately commuted to 3 years in prison, 2 years probation, and 5 years suspension of his social rights

- and while we’re on the topic of heroic Iranian dissidents, we might as well pause to glimpse briefly at the winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi:

- Ebadi’s background: born in Hamadan in 1947 - as everyone knows, Hamadan was the home of Avicenna, the major medieval philosopher - this is his tomb:

- Hamadan is also a major region for Persian rug production

- Shirin Ebadi’s father is a professor of commercial law - he takes up a position at the University of Tehran in 1948

- Shirin Ebadi follows in her father’s footsteps, getting her law degree (it’s an undergrad degree in Iran) in 1969 (age 22), and then having passed the qualifying exams and a suitable internship, became a judge at age 23, in 1970, and in 1975 she becomes the first Iranian woman to serve as a prestigious legislative judge - at the time of the Iranian Revolution, the regime decreed that women could no longer serve as judges, so she was demoted to being a “law expert” - she found this much less exciting than being a judge, and repeatedly tried to resign - her resignation was finally accepted in 1993

- she returned to the University of Tehran as a law lecturer and focused her attention on the legal status of women and children - in this role, she was a keen supporter of Mohammad Khatami, and was one of the people that Khatami looked to to implement his promises to improve the position of women and children in Iranian society

- as a lawyer, Ebadi represented the Forouhar family after the murders of Dariush and Parvahen Forouhar; she also represented a student accused of murder during the 1999 student riots  and a few of the banned newspapers

- in terms of children, she established 2 NGOs, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child and the Defenders of Human Rights Center, designed to serve as advocacy groups for children’s and human rights

- she drafted Iran’s law banning physical abuse of children, which passed the Majlis and became law in 2002

- the Nobel Committee awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for children’s rights in Iran, though, of course, the Committee’s decision was also viewed in the media as an attempt to draw attention to Iran’s reformist movement after they had been undercut by Bush’s Axis of Evil speech - anyhow, here’s Ebadi accepting her award:

- so to summarize, the major events of 2003: 1) rejection of the Twin Bills; 2) Aghajari is recalled to life; 3) Ebabi wins the Nobel Peace Prize   

- but of course, none of those things was really the big story of 2003 - the big story of 2003 was the US invasion of Iraq

What Ever Happened to the Iraqi Islamic Dawa Party? 

- let’s review some of the material we covered when we were discussing the Iran-Contra affair

- the Islamic Dawa Party is founded by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim at Najaf in the 1950s - their ideology is similar to Khomeini’s (whom they know because he comes and lives with them at Najaf) in that both are traditionalist and opposed to modernizing tendencies - Khomeini opposes the Shah, Islamic Dawa opposes the Iraqi Baathist Party

- the major difference between al-Sadr and Khomeini is that al-Sadr continues to believe that power should ultimately rest with the people and rejects Khomeini’s idea of clerical guardianship - Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim comes to side with Khomeini in the debate   

- during the period when the Shah and the Baathists are all chummy in the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein expels Khomeini and cracks down on the Islamic Dawa Party in Iraq

- the Islamic Dawa Party is generally very happy to see the Iranian Revolution - Khomeini is, after all, one of their own

- Islamic Dawa also essentially sides with Iran during the Iraq War because they look forward to Shiite Iran liberating Iraq from the Sunni-dominated secular Baath regime

- Islamic Dawa is brutally suppressed by Saddam (of course) during this period - it is also during this period that the Islamic Dawa Party splits - in 1982, Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim organizes the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council - it supports Ruhollah Khomeini’s idea of rule of the ulema - as such, they are even more pro-Iran during the war than al-Dawa was

- both the Islamic Dawa Party and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are forced into exile because Saddam’s repression proves successful

- following the first Gulf War, the US government decided that it would attempt to unify Saddam’s Iraqi opponents and oversaw the foundation of the Iraqi National Council in 1992 - both the Islamic Dawa Party and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council were persuaded to join the INC - the other major players in the coalition were two Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - the INC was organized in Kurdish territory in late 1992, adopting a secular platform with a commitment to human rights and the rule of law - the INC chose as its leader the secular Shiite mathematician Ahmed Chalabi, seen here:

- in 1994, the two Kurdish parties of the INC started fighting each other and as a result, the US began seeking out other allies in the region - most particularly, they turned to the Iraqi National Accord (INA) an umbrella organization (like the INC), founded in 1991, with the express purpose of being a secular group which excluded the pro-Iranian Shia parties - here’s a picture of one of the co-founders of the INA, Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite:

- is it just me, or do Chalabi and Allawi look incredibly similar?  any chance they’re the same person?

- anyhow, the dissolution of the INC continued in 1995 when the KDP struck a deal with Saddam to support them against the PUK

- by 1996, the INC was basically dead - but then, in 1998, the US Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act, calling for regime change in Iraq - this act appropriated $97 million for the INC

- the INC used this money to begin an extensive lobbying campaign in Washington in favour of deposing Saddam Hussein - this campaign gained added traction after 9/11, particularly via the INC’s greatest supporters, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle

- it is important to note that both al-Dawa and SCIRI, though members of the INC, were never, properly speaking, clients of the US government - they continued to be Shia parties which naturally looked to Iran for leadership in the Shia world

- in the weeks before the start of the Iraq War, al-Dawa and SCIRI representatives met in London, then in Tehran to discuss their plans for postwar Iraq - why Tehran?  well, as noted before, al-Dawa and SCIRI traditionally had strong ties to Iran - in fact, the leader of SCIRI, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, seen here, was living in Iran at the time:

- and not just Iraqi Shia leaders were living in Iran - Kurdish leaders too (Iran continued its support of Kurdish separatists in Iraq)- most notably, the head of the PUK, Jalal Talabani:

- so, there was obviously going to be pro-Iranian sentiment in the new Iraqi government

- on July 13, 2003, under the Coalition Provisional Authority headed by Paul Bremer, the government of Iraq passed to the Iraqi Governing Council, which included 13 Shiites, 5 Sunni Arabs, 5 Kurds, 1 Turk, and 1 Assyrian - here’s the Iraqi Governing Council:

- for the reasons mentioned above, we would expect the 13 Shiite members of the Council to have pro-Iranian tendencies (and maybe also the Kurdish members)

- but before we get to what’s going on in Iraq, let’s get back to Iran for the last year of Khatami’s presidency

 

Iran, 2004

- 2004 was slated for fresh elections to the Majlis

- in January 2004, Khamanei moves against the reformists - the Guardian Council aggressively asserted its constitutional prerogative and struck thousands of candidates from the ballot

- the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the reformist party headed by President Khatami’s brother, was banned outright

- the IIPF announced that it was boycotting the 2004 elections - and Shirin Ebadi similarly encouraged people to boycott the election - on the other hand, President Khatami urged electors to turn up to vote for the 191 (of 285) Association of Combatant Clerics candidates

- two reformist newspapers were banned shortly before the 2004 election

- the reformist members of the Majlis who were prevented from running for re-election by the Guardian Council staged a number of protests in January 2004 - in this picture we see reformist lawmakers praying during a sit-in protest at the Majlis:

- following the initial vote on Feb 20 and the followup vote on May 7, conservatives held 156 seats in the Majlis (54%) as opposed to the 39 seats (13%) held by the reformists

- as a result of the neutering of the reformists by Khamanei and the Guardian Council, Khatami is now basically a lame-duck president

- not that the reform movement is entirely silenced - for example, the film Marmoulak (“The Lizard”), slated to be released in March 2004 is held up for a while but then released after the most offensive scenes were cut - the film is about a convicted thief who disguises  himself as a Muslim cleric in order to avoid prosecution and is basically a critique of the privileged role of clerics in Iranian society - the film thus crossed a taboo in Iranian society about mocking clerics - it was one of the funniest and most commercially successful films ever made in Iran - here’s a still:

- meanwhile, in Iraq: in June 2004, the US formally handed over sovereignty of Iraq to the Iraqi Interim Government - the Iraqi Governing Council chose a Sunni Arab, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer as the President of Iraq, and Iyad Allawi, the head of the INA, as prime minister of Iraq

2005 Presidential Election

 

- the Iranian constitution limited Khatami to two terms in office - as always willing to abide by the terms of the constitution, Khatami did not run for reelection - though the popularity of the reformists had been waning since Bush’s Axis of Evil speech anyway

- as was to be expected, the Guardian Council continued to disqualify hundreds (maybe thousands) of presidential candidates as we move in to the elections

- main candidates:

1) Mostafa Moeen:

- Moeen is the candidate for the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the leading reformist candidate

2) Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

- he’s baack - this time representing the moderate conservatives

3) Mehdi Karroubi

- former chairman of the Association of Combatant Clerics - Speaker of the Majlis 2000-204 - critical of the Guardian Council though supportive of Supreme Leader Khamenei

- widely seen as a reformist acceptable to conservatives

4) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

- conservative, populist mayor of Tehran

- results: 

Round I: June 17, 2005: Rafsanjani 21.0%, Ahmadinejad 19.5% - so, it’s pretty close - leads to run-off election

Round II: June 24, 2005: Rafsanjani 35.9%, Ahmadeinejad 61.7%

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President 2005-Present

- Ahmadinejad’s background: born near Tehran in 1956; in 1976, scores extremely high on the entrance exams to Iranian universities (of the 400,000+ Iranians who took the entrance exam in 1976, Ahmadinejad ranks #132); studies civil engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) - here’s a photo of the gate to the university - can you get anything more 1970s than this?:

- becomes engaged in conservative student politics while at university - in 1979, he represents IUST in the Organization for Strengthening Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries (the OSU) - the OSU is heavily involved in the Iran hostage crisis (many hostages allege that Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage-takers, though the US government regards this allegation as unproven)       

- 1980: during the Iranian Cultural Revolution, the OSU plays a crucial role in purging modernists from Iran’s universities

- Khatami’s supporters allege that during the early 1980s, Ahmadinejad worked as an executioner at the Evin Prison and killed many opponents of the Iranian regime - this allegation is unsubstantiated

- 1984: Ahmadinejad begins studies to receive his M.Sc. in Civil Engineering

- 1986: becomes a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards - in this picture, we see him with Ayatollah Fazlollah Mahallati, the Islamic “commissar” to the Revolutionary Guards:

- during the Iran-Iraq War, he commanded troops in the battle around Kirkuk

- following the war, in 1989, he became governor of two cities in the West Azerbaijan province:

- one of the cities was Khoy, and the other was Maku, seen here:

- during this period, he also served as an adviser to the Governor General of the Kurdistan province:

- in 1993, Ahmadinejad was promoted from being a governor of two cities to the position of Governor General of an entire province, Ardabil Province:

- Ardabil is particularly notable for containing the tomb of Sheikh Safi, after whom the Safavid Dynasty (ruled 1501-1722) was named - here it is:

- so, 8 years as in the ethnically non-Persian areas of Iran - he was apparently quite a harsh ruler, and there are some allegations that he engaged in ethnic violence during his period as governor and then Governor General

- while Governor General, he also decides to go back to school, and receives his Ph.D. in transportation engineering and planning from IUST in 1997

- with the election of Khatami in 1997, Ahmadinejad’s time as Governor General of Ardabil Province comes to an end - so, he moves back to Tehran and takes up a post as a professor at IUST

- in 2003, he decides to run for Mayor of Tehran

Background on the Local Politics of Tehran

- Tehran is the capital city of Iran - today its population is approximately 11 million

- location:

- it is also the capital of Tehran Province:

- it has a modern skyline, complete with Milad Tower, the 4th largest tower in the world:

- and a beautiful location, nestled in the mountains:

- the symbol of modern Tehran (and modern Iran) is the Azadi Tower in Azadi Square, built in 1971 to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire:

- 1970s Tehran also saw the construction of Iran’s largest amusement park, Shahr-e Bazi:

- and of course, 1971 would not have been 1971 if it hadn’t seen the construction of Tehran’s premiere sports complex, the 100,000-seat Azadi Stadium:

 

 

- and in the winter, the residents of Tehran can take advantage of the nearby Alborz Mountains - here’s a picture of the world snowboarding championships, being held at the Dizin ski resort, which was founded by the Islamic regime in 1979 shortly after the Revolution:

- in 1988, one of Rafsanjani’s closest associates, Gholamhossein Karbaschi became Mayor of Tehran:

- generally identified as a reformist, he went on to support Khatami in the 1997 presidential campaign - here he is with Khatami:

- in 1998, Karbaschi was arrested and tried on corruption charges - his trial was a media circus and was watched by millions of Iranians - here’s a TV image of Karbaschi defending himself at his trial:

- Karbaschi claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated and that conservatives were trying him on trumped-up charges simply because he was a reformist

- reformists rallied to his side:

- but to no avail - verdict: GUILTY - sentence: 5 years in prison - here we see Karbaschi on his way to prison:

- he would not serve his full sentence though - according to reports, former president Rafsanjani intervened with Supreme Leader Khamenei, and in 2000 Khamenei pardoned Karbaschi

- but in the meantime, Tehran got a new mayor, Morteza Alviri:

- Alviri was a close associate with Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri:

- we probably should have mentioned Montazeri before this - background: he became friends with Ruhollah Khomeini while the two were both students at Qom - with Khomeini, Montazeri was active in his opposition to the White Revolution, and after Khomeini was forced into exile, Montazeri was the head of the clerical opposition to the Shah within Iran - jailed by the Shah’s regime 1974-78; played a major role during the Islamic Revolution, including as an important drafter of the Iranian constitution - by 1980, he was Khomeini’s closest deputy:

- his portrait was routinely displayed alongside Khomeini’s by 1983 and, at Khomeini’s request, the Assembly of Experts named Montazeri as Khomeini’s designated successor as Supreme Leader

- but then he had a falling out with Khomeini caused by: 1) Montazeri’s associates revealing Iran’s role in the Iran-Contra Affair, thus embarrassing then-Speaker of the Majlis Rafsanjani; 2) in November 1987, Montazeri spoke out in favour of legalizing more political parties; 3) in autumn 1988, Montazeri gives a newspaper interview in which he criticizes the regime for denying people human rights and “betraying the Revolution’s values” - he also criticized the Rushdie fatwa

- Khomeini dismissed Montazeri in early 1989 - his portrait was removed from government offices and mosques, his title of “Grand Ayatollah” was withdrawn, and the government press began a smear campaign against him

- following Khomeini’s death, Montazeri’s supporters objected to the selection of Ali Khamenei as new Supreme Leader, on the grounds that he was not even an Ayatollah - in retaliation, the Revolutionary Guards detained Montazeri and humiliated him by forcing him to wear a nightcap instead of his customary white turban - in 1997, Khamanei ordered Montazeri formally placed under house arrest, allegedly for his own protection from radical conservative elements

- so, the Tehran City Council’s decision to back Montazeri’s supporter Morteza Alviri as Mayor in 1998 should be seen as a criticism of Khamenei

- initially a radical political leftist, by 1998, Alviri had transformed himself into a liberal technocrat and a close ally of President Rafsanjani

- the highlight of Alviri’s tenure as mayor was the 2000 opening of the long-delayed Tehran subway system - here we see Alviri and Khatami at the grand opening:

- as noted above, 2000 also sees an assassination attempt on Tehran city councillor Saeed Hajjarian

- in general Alviri was not a good manager and was widely criticized for failing to take steps to deal with local issues such as construction projects, housing production, air pollution, and city planning - he resigns in early 2002 - soon named Iran’s Ambassador to Spain

- Ahmad Malekmadani briefly took over as Mayor before the Tehran City Council chose Ahmadinejad as mayor in early 2003

Back to Ahmadinejad

- Ahmadinejad’s time as Mayor of Tehran was characterized by the rolling back of previous reforms, notably: 1) giving the “cultural centres” founded by his predecessors a more explicitly religious bent; 2) advocating separate elevators for men and women in municipal buildings; 3) suggesting that those killed in the Iran-Iraq War should be reburied in Tehran’s major city squares

- he also expanded charity, most notably instituting a system for giving soup to the poor

- Ahmadinejad was the favoured son of the hardline fundamentalists - the man most widely named as the head of the hardliners is this man, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi

- Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi studied under Khomeini at Qom (before Khomeini’s exile) and is currently a member of the Assembly of Experts - a rigorous proponent of Iran’s anti-blasphemy laws, he was a major force calling for the laws being enforced against Iranian reformists in the 1990s - he has a strictly literalist interpretation of the Quran - he believes that both slavery and aggression are justifiable under Islam and is a vocal supporter of suicide bombing against Israel

- Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi is nicknamed “Professor Crocodile”, a name which was coined because “Mesbah” rhymes with the Persian word for crocodile, “Temsah” - here is the cartoon in which the phrase “Professor Crocodile” was coined - note that the crocodile is strangling a journalist with his tail:

- Mesbah-Yazdi had the cartoonist, Nikahang Kowsar arrested - he spent 7 days in prison - he now lives in Canada

- Ahmadinejad has described Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi as his spiritual advisor

- so, anyhow, in 2005, Ahmadinejad runs for president - he appeals to two distinct groups: 1) religious conservatives, exemplified by Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi; and 2) the poor - whom he promises greater social services

- so far, Ahmadinejad has only been in power for two years, so it’s difficult to assess what his presidency will mean for the people of Iran - in general, however, his victory in 2005 was seen as a major victory for the forces of conservative fundamentalism and a major blow for the reformist forces

- he certainly hasn’t been good for the country’s image:

- in October 2005, Ahmadinejad attended the “World Without Zionism” conference:

- note: Iran’s official position has always been that Iran is not antisemitic, it is anti-Zionist - i.e. they don’t have a problem with Jews per se, they have a problem with the State of Israel - at the conference, he stated:

        Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying

        regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We

        cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new

         front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts

        the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world.

        Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning

        the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in

        Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful

        stain from the Islamic world.           

- the western media widely reported that Ahmadinejad had called for Israel to be wiped off the map and had called Israel a “disgraceful stain”

- some western leaders, including Canadian prime minister Paul Martin and several members of the US House of Representatives interpreted Ahmadinejad’s comments as a call for genocide - Ahmadinejad responded that he wanted to wipe the Israeli regime, not the Jewish people off the map - “Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out”

- he reiterated his theme in a speech in the city of Zaheden in December 2005:

        Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are

        committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets,

        missiles and sanctions. [...] The same European countries have imposed the        

        illegally-established Zionist regime on the oppressed nation of Palestine. If you

        have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or

        America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there. Then the

        Iranian nation will have no objections, will stage no rallies on the Qods Day and

        will support your decision.

            They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God,

        religions and the prophets. The West has given more significance to the myth of the

        genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets,

        (it) deals very severely with those who deny this myth but does not do anything to

        those who deny God, religion, and the prophet. If you have burned the Jews, why

        don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel? Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?

- Ahmadinejad’s remarks were widely denounced as antisemitic in the foreign press, but again, Ahmadinejad’s line was that his remarks were anti-Zionist, not antisemitic - many within Iran supported Ahmadinejad, and believed he was being treated unfairly by the world media

- many Iranians felt that the west has double standards when it comes to issues of free speech - this was highlighted during the Danish cartoons crisis, when a conservative Danish newspaper asked cartoonists to submit cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad - here they are:

- these cartoons were deeply offensive to Muslims and set off a massive wave of protests throughout the Islamic world and virtually every Muslim country issued diplomatic protests against the Danish government - Iran was not an early mover in the controversy, but by February, the public groundswell of anti-Danish opinion was such that Ahmadinejad withdrew the Iranian ambassador to Denmark and declared an economic embargo against Denmark (in violation of Iran’s treaty obligations to the EU) - during a massive protest at the Danish embassy in Tehran, Tehran police had to use tear gas to dispel the crowd - here are some anti-Danish protestors:

- Hamshari, a major Iranian newspaper announced that it was holding an International Holocaust Cartoon Competition to retaliate for the Danish cartoons - here are some of the cartoons submitted:

- Iranian conservatives hailed the Holocaust cartoon competition - many repeated their routine claim that Iran’s anti-blasphemy laws were no different than western laws banning Holocaust denial

- this led to the idea to hold an International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust - this would give westerners who had been prosecuted for Holocaust denial a forum to discuss their views and point up the West’s hypocrisy about free speech when it comes to this issue - the forum went ahead in December 2006 - in this photo, we see several presenters from the conference, including American David Duke on the left:

- the oddest participants in the conference were the Jewish participants, which included representatives of Neturei Karta (a group of Haredi Jews who are strongly anti-Zionist) and Austrian Jew Moshe Aryeh Friedman, seen here at the conference (he’s the one on the left):

- Ahmadinejad chose his words more carefully at this conference, saying “Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out” - however, the event was clearly a public relations disaster for Iran and was widely denounced by world leaders

- this is Maurice Motamed:

- Motamed represents Iran’s Jewish community in the Majlis - he denounced the conference and has also spoken out against antisemitism on Iranian television

- anyhow, when Ahmadinejad isn’t being controversial on the world stage, what else has he been up to as president?

- Iran’s consumption of petroleum is way up, but Iran (which has price controls in this area) has been reluctant to increase the internal price of gas - they’ve had to import gas to keep up with demand

- he formed a $3.5 billion fund, called “Reza’s Compassion Fund” to help young people get jobs and afford marriage, and to help them buy homes

- Ahmadinejad has been criticized by some of his more conservative supporters as being “weak on the hijab” - enforcement of traditional Islamic dress has not been a major concern for Ahmadinejad’s government - Rafsanjani’s supporters were especially critical after he kissed his former schoolteacher’s hand in public, violating the conservative ban on male-female contact - in April 2007, Khamenei ordered a crackdown on improper hijab against Ahmadinejad’s wishes

- the universities have been subjected to a “Second Iranian Cultural Revolution”, with many professors forced to take early retirement - the government has also attempted to limit the number of female university students

- vegetable prices tripled in a matter of months in 2006, leading to widespread protests

- 85-year-old Hossein Ali Montazeri broke his long media silence in 2007 to criticize Ahmadinejad for harming the country

- in December 2006, during a visit to Amir Kabir University, Ahmadinejad faced his first major student protest:

- these protests would continue - here for example, is one from October 2007, protesting a sentence handed out to 3 Amir Kabir for insulting Islam:

- the 2006 elections for city councils and the Assembly of Experts were widely seen as a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah-Yazdi

- oh, and he sent President Bush a crazy letter on May 9, 2006 - which did mark the first contact between the American and Iranian leaders since 1980

- and he spoke at Columbia University in 2007:

Final Excursus: Iran and Nuclear Weapons

- like virtually every nuclear program in the world, the Iranian nuclear program began in the 1950s thanks to Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program - here we see an American postage stamp commemorating Atoms for Peace:

- 1967: founding of the Tehran Nuclear Research Centre, under the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), a research reactor fueled by enriched uranium provided by the US

- 1968: Iran signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though the most important signatories, were, of course, the US and the USSR, seen here signing the Treaty:

- 3 pillars of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: 1) non-proliferation (don’t produce new nuclear weapons); 2) disarmament; 3) the right of countries to use nuclear energy peacefully

- the US and the Shah now enter into an agreement that will see Iran build 23 nuclear power plants by 2000

- here’s a 1968 Iranian news story on Iran’s female nuclear scientists:

- 1973: Iran enters into a deal with Eurodif, a joint stock company that would provide Iran with enriched uranium - the Shah lends Eurodif $1 billion to construct an enrichment facility and acquires a 10% share of Eurodif

- of course, in the 1970s, everyone assumed that the world was on the verge of running out of oil, making it urgently necessary to invest in nuclear power - American nuclear energy companies ran ads emphasizing that even oil-rich Iran was investing in nuclear power:

- 1975: a German conglomerate, Kraftwerk Union AG, enters into a contract with Iran to build a pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant for a price of $4-6 billion, to be completed by 1981

- as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, this entire program was subject to oversight and inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (the IAEA) - here’s their flag:

- 1976: Gerald Ford offers to sell a complete nuclear fuel cell to Iran

- there are, however, reports that the Shah initiated a program to develop nuclear weapons

- 1979: following the Revolution, the French government (which was a major shareholder in Eurodif) refused to allow Eurodif to ship enriched uranium to Iran - however, they also refused to repay Iran the $1 billion lent to Eurodif by the Shah

- the US and Germany had also received billions of dollars from the Shah for construction of nuclear facilities - they now refused to build the promised nuclear facilities and also refused to give Iran its money back

- these cancelled contracts were a major anti-western grievance of Iran’s

- following the Iranian Revolution, the Shah’s nuclear weapons program was scrapped by Khomeini, who regarded nuclear weapons as “contrary to Islamic values” - however, during the Iran-Iraq War, Iran learned that Iraq was attempting to make nuclear weapons at the Osirik site, which results in Khomeini reevaluating his position on nuclear weapons

- 1983: Iran informs the IAEA that, since it cannot purchase uranium from Europe or the US, it intends to develop its own enrichment facilities - th IAEA provides Iran with tech

- 1990s: the Russian Federation agrees to help Iran complete construction of Iran’s Bushehr I nuclear reactor

- starting in 1996, China begins selling Iran gas needed for the uranium enrichment process

- this is Alireza Jafarzedah:

- he is involved with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political branch of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (i.e. the MEK), the most hated foe of the Iranian regime

- in August 2002, Jafarzedah announced that, in addition to the facilities subject to IAEA inspection, Iran was also developing nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak

- Iran argued that under the terms of the Non-proliferation Treaty it was not required to submit to IAEA inspections until 6 months before a nuclear facility was about to receive fissile material - in 1992, the Board of Governors of the IAEA had determined that countries should report facilities to the IAEA while in the planning stage - Iran rejected the IAEA’s ability to impose requirements on them that went beyond the text of the Non-proliferation Treaty and refused to allow the IAEA inspectors in

- the UK, France, and Germany, known as the “EU Three” now launched a major diplomatic offensive at Iran - here is the EU Three:

- this diplomacy paid off, and in October 2003, Iran agreed to admit inspectors and agreed to work with the IAEA in order to voluntarily sign the Additional Protocol

- Nov.  2003: IAEA issues a report in which it says that Iran has failed in its reporting obligations under the NPT, specifically a failure to report importation of uranium from China and conducting experiments about the separation of plutonium - they concluded that Iran had demonstrated a “pattern of concealment” - however, the report also indicated that there was “no evidence” that any nuclear material had been diverted towards weapons programs

- Iran responded that its reporting failure was really the fault of the US, which had been pressuring the IAEA to cease giving technical assistance to Iran

- in 2004-5, the IAEA board (allegedly under intense American pressure) declared that Iran’s breaches (which had already been corrected by this time and which the IAEA had already certified had not resulted in diversion of fissile material to weapons programs) constituted “noncompliance” with Iran’s Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA

- Iran voluntarily agreed to cease uranium enrichment (which it was allowed to do under the NPT) in November 2004 - but then in August 2005, they removed seals on enrichment facilities, a move that the UK as a violation of the Paris Agreement (although the Paris Agreement had not required Iran to cease uranium enrichment)

- at this point, Ahmadinejad is elected president and he appoints as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, this man, Ali Larijani:

- Larijani had ran against Ahmadinejad in the presidential election (he got 5% of the vote) - he was a Revolutionary Guard in the 1980s and has the ear of the Supreme Leader

- February 2006: the EU Three convince the IAEA to refer Iran to the UN Security Council

- Iran continued to maintain that it was allowed to enrich uranium under the terms of the NPT and that the IAEA was unfairly singling Iran out for behaviour that was permitted under the treaty

- April 2006: Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium

- August 2006: Iran again announces that it will voluntarily cease enrichment of uranium and return to negotiations with the IAEA

- polls of Iranians consistently show that approximately 70% of the country believes that Iran should have the right to have peaceful nuclear energy and that the US and the EU Three have been bullying Iran

- officially, the Iranian government continues to maintain that it has no nuclear weapons program and has no plans to develop a nuclear weapons program - the US and other western countries have strong suspicions that Iran secretly has ambitions to develop nuclear weapons, but has never been able to provide proof of this - Iran thus maintains that there was no grounds in international law justifying the IAEA’s referral of Iran to the UN Security Council

- April 2007: Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has resumed uranium enrichment and refuses to discuss ceasing enrichment as a prerequisite to discussions

- is Iran actually seeking nuclear weapons?

- Iran argues that it needs nuclear power in order to meet an energy crunch currently underway in the country - if Iran doesn’t develop alternate sources of energy, it will soon hardly be able to export any oil at all:

- outside sources, including one by the American National Academy of Sciences, confirm that there is a strong economic rationale for Iran’s nuclear power program

- nevertheless the US government continues to maintain that it’s merely a cover for the development of nuclear weapons

- the UN sanctions against Iran for enriching uranium remain in force to this day

- part of the US’s concern relates to statements that former president Rafsanjani (at that point Chairman of the Expediency Council) made in a December 2001 speech - it is worth quoting at length:

        [Israel] is also supported politically in the United Nations and many other

        places. They also contain Islamic and Arab governments. Israel needs all of

        those things and the Americans and Britain are meeting its needs. Therefore,

        we should consider it to be an outgrowth of colonialism and a multi-purpose

        colonial base. That is where we should start discussing the next point. So the

        survival of Israel depends on the interests of imperialists and colonialists. So

        they go together.

        The colonialists will keep this base as long as they need it. Now, whether they

        can do so or not is a separate issue and this is my next point. Any time they find a replacement for that particular instrument, they will take it up and this will come

         to an end. This will open a new chapter. Because colonialism and imperialism

        will not easily leave the people of the world alone. Therefore, you can see that they

        have arranged it in a way that the balance of power favours Israel. Well, from a

         numerical point of view, it cannot have as many troops as Muslims and Arabs do.

        So they have improved the quality of what they have. Classical weaponry has its

        own limitations. They have limited use. They have a limited range as well. They

        have supplied vast quantities of weapons of mass destruction and unconventional

        weapons to Israel. They have permitted it to have them and they have shut their

        eyes to what is going on. They have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles and suchlike.

        If one day ... Of course, that is very important. If one day, the Islamic world is also

        equipped with weapons like those that Israel possesses now, then the imperialists'

        strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel

        will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational

         to contemplate such an eventuality. Of course, you can see that the Americans have kept their eyes peeled and they are carefully looking for even the slightest hint that technological advances are being made by an independent Islamic country. If an independent Islamic country is thinking about acquiring other kinds of weaponry, then they will do their utmost to prevent it from acquiring them. Well, that is something that almost the entire world is discussing right now.

- certain commentators, notably Alan Dershowitz, have used this speech to argue that, if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran would not be subject to deterrence - it would be willing to attack Israel with nuclear weapons and absorb any retaliation on its own citizens - it seems to me that Dersh is reading too much into this speech

THE END