Burst of Light (3)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution, with its anti-oppression and anti-hegemonic nature, has created a great challenge for the arrogant powers. That’s why struggle against the global Arrogance is one of the basic principles of the Islamic Republic system.

The political ideas of the Islamic Republic are based on struggle in the way of truth and seeking of justice. Therefore, the history of the Islamic Revolution is brim with campaign and resistance in the face of all manifestations of oppression and injustice.

“If you want to overcome problems you must stand firm against all powers and you should strongly preserve your independence: cultural independence, economic independence, and social independence, all of these. And this is feasible through paying attention to Islam and getting allied and considering every stratum as brothers, since the enemy is in ambush.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran was born in the heat of the struggles against the global Arrogance and moved toward sublimity and perfection. This move has never stopped or weakened. The Islamic Republic has never bowed to the dictates of the west or the former east. Every time that the enemies, led by the Great Satan, the US, ganged up against the Islamic Iran, the Iranian nation encountered their plots stronger than before. This nation has shown that resistance against the global Arrogance is not a mere verbal slogan but it is the crystallization of the values of a nation and the core of their belief.

 “Today Almighty God has ceded the country to you and you are rendering service. You should keep in mind that your country is alone among all countries. All countries are against us except a few of them; but as the country and its people are faithful and they themselves believe that they should solve the problems with the divine blessing, thoughts have begun working and activities started. Now Iran is much more advanced than the time when they made much fuss on the “Great Civilization”. What is important is that now we are independent and nobody can insult our dustman. Now you are independent and your own master.”

A look at the past record of Iran-American ties indicates the fact that the United States has put on its agenda to interfere every aspect of Iran’s affairs. Many researchers have mentioned the August 19, 1953 coup as the starting point of the American intervention in Iran’s affairs. Yet, the relations of Iran and the United States can be traced back to the onset of the cold war era and the events before that. The 1917 Russian revolution, occupation of Iranian soil by the allied powers and the inclination for Iran’s oil reserves made the US’s tentacles sensitive toward Iran. The chain of events during WWII urged the US to have military relations with Iran. These relations led to signing of a 10 million dollar contract for arms sale to Iran. But the widespread developments of the 1950s created basic changes in these relations. These changes were accompanied with broad and effective interventions of the US in Iran’s internal affairs. The military coup d’état in August 1953 was staged within the framework of paving the ground for further US meddling in the affairs of Iran.

The US-British coup of August 19, 1953, which resulted in the collapse of the legal government of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, is reminiscent of a bitter chapter in Iran’s political history prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution. The classified documents, which were published later, revealed the role and organized measures of the CIA for overthrowing then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq during 1952-1953 period.

Mark Gasiorowski from George Washington University writes, “155 persons came to assist the CIA. The CIA, manipulating conditions in Iran since one month before the coup, sets the stage for it. Some newspapers were paid to write against Mossadeq and depict the circumstances in a way as if he wer not able to administer the country.”

The joint coup of the US and Britain was staged in the critical juncture of the Nationalization of Oil Industry in Iran. It was a great blow to Iran’s political and economic interests. Over 69 years have passed from the coup but the hostile conducts persist on the side of the US and its European accomplices. In every juncture in time these conducts take a different shape. The US Secretary of State in the Bill Clinton administration, Madeleine Albright, confessed the direct role of the US in the August 19, 1953 coup d’état and the toppling of Mossadeq government.

She said, “Iran and America have commonalties with each other but these commonalties have been broken by other factors. The US measure in 1953 was justified because of strategic reasons but the coup was retrogression. It can be understood why Iranians continue to be discontent with the US intervention in their internal affairs.”

In 2009, former US president Barack Obama, and in 2011 then state secretary Hillary Clinton, too, expressed regret over this measure. Obama, in an interview with New York Times, on July 2009 said, “If you have a look at Iran’s history, the reality is that we had somehow meddled in overthrowing the democratically elected government in Iran.”

The US Homeland Security site for the first time released a classified document on 16 April 2000 on the 1953 coup in Iran which has embarked on the issue in detail for the first time. New York Times published an article which was also admitted by BBC. The article reads that documents released by the CIA after 6 decades leaves no doubt about the US and British interference in August 19, 1953 coup d’état.

After the coup the United States expanded its dominance over Iran. The Eisenhower administration, as part of its strategy based on bolstering anti-Soviet governments around China and USSR and other parts of the world, put broad plans into effect in mid-1960s for training and equipping paramilitary forces, police and intelligence agencies in the US-affiliated regimes in the region including Iran. Dwight Eisenhower in his first speech said, “I don’t think there is a region more important than Iran on the geographical map of the world. Iran must not become a military power. Conditions shouldn’t be in a way that Iran returns to its far past and becomes a military power. Woe to the time when militarism is revived in Iran. Go and read the history of this country so that you understand my word.”

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and, his vice, Lyndon Johnson, took power as the new president, he instantly passed a bill based ion which Iran was forced to buy weapons worth 200 million dollars from the US. Johnson, in addition to backing Shah’s so-called White Revolution, supported his suppression of the June 1963 uprising. For Johnson the Shah was considered as the protector of US interests. Johnson and his advisors even didn’t deem the suppressions enough and believed that Shah should quell the opponents more violently.

After Johnson, Richard Nixon’s coming to power ushered in a new round of close relations between the Shah regime and the US regime. A few months before elections, Nixon came to Tehran and met with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He seemed to have given promises to his old friend on arms sale. Then undersecretary of state said, “Since 1953 when Shah returned to Iran till 1972 we had him under thorough surveillance. It was we who told him ‘you don’t need such and such weapon and it is useless’. Therefore, during 22 years the whole arms that the Shah was allowed to purchase from the United States wouldn’t exceed 1.3 billion dollars. After having given full authority and freedom by Nixon and Kissinger in 1972, the arms purchase by him multiplied 20-fold in 7 years. In fact we what we did was like giving the key of the largest wine warehouse to an alcoholic person.”

Richard Nixon, throughout his presidency, supported the Shah in quelling the revolutionaries via funneling arms and advisors to Iran. During this era, Richard Helms was assigned as the US ambassador in Iran and security and intelligence cooperation between Iran and the United States reached its climax. Through bolstering the CIA base in Iran, Tehran was chosen as the central headquarters of this spying apparatus in west Asia (the region called Middle East by westerners). This era coincided with the widespread arresting of the revolutionaries and opponents of the regime. Hence, torture of the opponents and suppression of any opposing voice was rampant throughout the country. But the US regime showed no reaction to these atrocities.

Just in the brink of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinsk, as an advocate of resorting to violence for suppressing the revolutionaries, had asked the Shah to be coercive against street riots. Then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had justified these remarks when he said that “according to the international terms, the US interests require that we support the Shah with our full power.”

The Shah’s arrival in America under the pretext of disease ensued Brzezinski’s clear support. Brzezinski described granting refuge to Shah as a moral deed, saying, “We consider it our moral duty to support the Shah and give him refuge. He is our 37 year friend. And we do not let him be like wandering Jews especially in the current conditions of Iran.”

Throughout the years after the 1953 coup till Shah’s ouster in 1979, the US supports in different domains of politics, economy, military and intelligence had set the ground for the American full dominance over Iran’s affairs. In terms of politics, every decision was made according to the considerations and interests of the US and many of the decisions were even made with the direct view of the Americans.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, too, the political, propaganda, security, legal and economic apparatuses of the west, especially the US and the Zionist regime, were all mobilized against the Islamic Revolution and the US embassy in Tehran turned into the actual headquarters of coordination with the anti-revolution forces. Since the day after the victory, separatist moves began. There are evidences and documents which indicate that the US regime has considered instigating separatist plots in Iran as a method to undermine and defeat the Islamic Republic system. One of the documents seized from the US den of espionage in Tehran shows that the so-called US embassy had evaluated the potentials of ethnicities to overthrow the Islamic Republic. This document reads, “If the Kurds, Azaris, Arabs and other ethnic groups coordinate their efforts and cooperate with each other and support one another, in our opinion they may succeed.”

The American government in 1979 made strenuous effort to spread its umbrella over the separatist schemes of different groups. Regarding the favorable condition of the country in those days, the US has pinned hop on the success of such schemes to the extent that the American senator Jackson stated in 1979 that Iran’s revolution is doomed to failure and the country is in the threshold of disintegration to smaller parts.

The fact of the matter is that the US hostility toward Iran is not confined to mere intervention in the form of coup and altering the political fate of Iran, though this measure is not considered a trivial matter to be ignored. The United States of America has been hostile toward Iran for the past decades. This hostility and enmity has once been in the form of coup d’état. But after the victory of the Islamic Revolution it has used different methods and hatched numerous plots to overthrow the Islamic Republic system.

The intervention and disturbance on the side of the US was the issue that was mentioned by Imam Khomeini since the first days of the Islamic Revolution, saying “In every revolution, when a victory is gained that is the time of sensitivity so that the people pay attention to what will happen. America will not let go of us so soon.”

After the end of the 8 year war imposed by the US through its minion Saddam, the US enmity toward Iran has continued in different forms and hostile measures such as calling the Islamic Republic as the axis of evil by the former US president George W. Bush.

RM/SS