by Petrodollar » Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:30:36
Just a couple of historical issues to consider regarding Iran and western oil imperialism - and an ironic parallel between the British naval blockade of 1951 and the proposed US Naval blockade of 2008...
First, it is simply not possible to understand today's US-Iranian relationship without understanding the events of 1951-1953. By far, the best book on this subject is
All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer. I highly recommend this book, and IMO, outlining how the CIA carried out operation AJAX would also make an
excellent movie.
First, a little history lesson is warranted:
During the two great wars of the 20th century, oil often proved to be the defining natural resource that was required to project military power on the sea, air, and land. Indeed, oil factored into victories and defeats during major military campaigns throughout the century.
At the onset of the 20th century, Germany recognized the importance of oil, and from 1899 to 1914, attempted to build a ‘Berlin-to-Baghdad’ railroad. Along with an advanced naval fleet, the German railroad project created a significant geopolitical rift with the British Empire.
At the time the British Navy was determined to convert her fleet from coal-burning to oil-burning ships, and Berlin’s plans to gain access to large amounts of petroleum in modern day Iraq was a important but hidden factor in Britain’s declaration of war against Germany in 1914. In 1918, the final year of WWI, Sir Maurice Hankey, Britain’s First Secretary of the War Cabinet wrote,
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Oil in the next war will occupy the place of coal in the present war, or at least a parallel place to coal.
The only big potential supply that we can get under British control is the Persian [now Iran] and Mesopotamian [now Iraq] supply…Control over these oil supplies becomes a first class British war aim.
Not surprisingly, the British did exactly what Sir Hankey recommended; in 1919 they carved-up the defeated Ottoman Empire and colonized the oil-rich regions of Iran and Iraq.
Life was good for the British for a few decades following their control of Iran's oil wealth - especially because 80% to 85% of the profits from the Anglo-Iranian oil company (later to become British Petrolem or BP) - went straight to London's coffers.
On the other hand, the Iranians got a bit tired of being so exploited, and by the late 1940s they hated the British and their colonial occupiers (see modern day Iraq for historical parallels)
These sentiments were shared by an Iranian politician in his early 60s, Mohammed Mossadegh, a staunch nationalist and anti-communist. He insisted that Iran be allowed to audit the accounting books from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This was a matter of due diligence to Mossadegh, who believed that Iran was not receiving its fair financial return from its vital oil exports. The British steadfastly refused.
Well, in 1951 the Parliament democratically elected Mossadegh as the Prime Minister of Iran, and he promptly nationalized Iran's oil. He offered the British a 50/50 split (which Saudi Arabia and other nations had recently negotiated with the American gov't/US oil companies). Mossadegh's approval rating was around 90% after he nationalized their oil, and offered a compromise with the UK.
However, Iran's proposal for a 50/50 split was unacceptable to the UK elites, and
British Prime Minister Arden organized a naval blockade of Iran, froze its overseas financial assets, and claimed that Iran’s nationalization of its own oil was illegal. However, the World Court upheld Mossadegh’s action. In 1951,
Time named Mossadegh Man of the Year, describing him as “the Iranian George Washington” but also as an exasperating, “
defiant man [who] dissolved one of the remaining pillars of a great empire.”Undeterred by this turn of events or by Mossadegh’s popularity with the Iranian people, Churchill asked Truman to help overthrow Mossadegh and regain British control over Iran’s oil export revenue. Truman declined and attempted to foster diplomatic mediation. However, in February 1953 Allen Dulles sent the newly sworn-in President Eisenhower a ridiculous intelligence estimate suggesting that a “Communist takeover is becoming more and more of a possibility” in Iran.
Eisenhower subsequently agreed to a covert operation in Iran code-named Ajax. In Operation Ajax, the CIA successfully overthrew Mossadegh in August 1953. The CIA then installed Mohammed Shah, a member of the Iranian monarchy who later became despised as a US puppet. The Shah used the brutal SAVAK secret police force to maintain his grip on power. Widespread political imprisonments, torture, and killings ultimately radicalized Iranian society.
This “blowback” ultimately resulted in the deportation of the Shah to the US and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Kinzer’s research shows that many Iranians were very pro-US before the CIA’s successful coup of Iran’s fledging democracy:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hy did you Americans do that terrible thing?’ a relative of Mossadegh demands of Kinzer. ‘
We always loved America. To us, America was the great country, the perfect country, the country that helped us while other countries were exploiting us. But after that moment, no one in Iran ever trusted the United States again.
I can tell you for sure that if you had not done that thing, you would never have had that problem of hostages being taken in your embassy in Tehran. All your trouble started in 1953. Why, why did you do it?’ The answer to her question can be summarized in one word — greed, stemming from powerful oil interests enacting unwarranted influence on British and American foreign policies.
So, here we are, 50+ years later... Not much has changed in the five decades since Mossadegh’s ouster. The Western “participants” in the Middle East are essentially the same, although the US is now the principal provocateur, and the “Communist threat” has of course morphed into the vague and ever-useful “terrorist threat.”
However, the main actors are becoming more desperate as Peak Oil looms, and now the US Congress is asking for a naval blockade of Iran, even though it does not pose a direct threat to US national security. Why are the Americans following a similar pattern of madness that inflcited the British 57 years ago? Well, just as Mossadegh was described as an exasperating, “
Today, Ahmadinejad, the current Iranian president, is also trying to "dissolve one of the remaining pillars of a great empire."
This time it is the declining US empire that is fighting back, and the pillar that is eroding is the US
. Unlike the subservient, pro-imperial US media conglomerates, you can read about the underlying conflict in the foreign media. For example:
It was a discreet, almost hush-hush affair, but after almost three years of stalling and endless delays it finally happened.
by Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari, flanked by Minister of Economy and Financial Affairs Davoud Danesh Ja’fari, the man who will head the exchange.
Officially called the Iranian International Petroleum Exchange(IIPE), it is widely known in Iran and the Persian Gulf as the Kish bourse, named after Kish island, a free zone (declared by the shah) in an ideal laissez faire setting: lots of condos and duty-free malls, no Khomeini mega-portraits and hordes of young honeymooners shopping for made-in-Europe home appliances.
Transactions at this early stage will be in Iran’s currency, the rial, according to Nozari, ending worldwide speculation that the bourse would start trading in euros.
