By Kelechi Deca
Mark Twain wrote that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
The British diplomat George Curzon had in 1892, described Iran as “Pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world.” There has never been a more succinct description. Iran’s existential war since the 19th century has been a war of balancing her national interests with those of leading powers.
In 1901, the then King of Persia as the country was called, Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar granted a 60-year petroleum search concession to William Knox D’Arcy (remember the company later came to Nigeria under the name Shell D’Arcy).
But after World War I, the people were dissatisfied with the royalty terms of the British petroleum concession, under the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, this led to a coup that toppled the King and brought Reza Shah to power in 1921. He started the Pahlavi Dynasty under a democratic parliament.
When the 2nd World War broke out in 1939, Iran was the most prosperous, and politically advanced nation in the region, and its leader, Reza Shah declared neutrality.
He trusted neither the British, Soviets nor the Germans. He felt they’re all after Iran’s resources. Despite the benefits of economic relations with Germany, he could not stomach Hitler’s ideology of the superiority of the Aryan race. He distanced his country from both camps. To punish him for such brazenness, and temerity, in 1941, Britain and the allies, with the help of the Soviet Union came up with allegations that Reza Shah Pahlavi is a sympathizer of Nazi Germany, a claim they could not back up with evidence.
Yet they used that pretext to invade Iran, and forced Reza Shah to abdicate his throne. They installed his 22 year old son, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran.
To understand why they needed Iran so bad, we would need some Geography lessons to understand History. Iran is strategically located very close to the centre of the world. Very few countries had such a strategic location. Being in the Middle East, in southwestern Asia, Iran is bordered by three of the most strategically important water bodies in the history of trade and human civilisation. They are the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman.
Moreso, Iran shares borders with seven countries: Turkey and Iraq to the west, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan to the north, and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east. So the primary reason for the invasion was to secure control over Iran’s oil fields and the Trans-Iranian Railway in order to deliver supplies to the USSR, as the German invasion has cut the USSR from Europe.
Under the pro West Shah of Iran, the country was democratic with a Prime Minister who runs the affairs of the government and the Shah who is a Constitutional Monarch. Like the British system.
Let me take you back a little.
Iran is the first country in the Islamic world to embrace democracy as a system of government.
It was the first country outside the western hemisphere that had a revolution aimed at bringing in constitutionality. The Persian Constitutional Revolution which led to the establishment of a Parliament took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar era. The revolution came before the Young Turks in 1908.
So under the Shah of Iran, there was democracy. They have the King, and the Prime Minister similar to what obtains in Europe but all that changed with the 28 Mordad Coup which overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953.
The primary motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after its government refused to concede to western oil demands.Interestingly, that Coup which had the backing of the United States was aimed at disrupting democracy and making Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi an autocrat. When he started facing resistance, the Shah carried out a referendum that led to the White Revolution of 1963, a broad people based reform aimed at wealth redistribution, but some were not placed.
According to declassified papers from the US government in 2013, that Coup was instigated by the United States (under the name TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax) and the United Kingdom (under Under the name Operation Boot).
That was the beginning of the dissolution for Iranian democracy. The discontent under the autocratic rule of the Shah gave birth to the ugly events that started on January 16, 1979 when Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlovi was toppled during the Iranian Revolution led by Khomeini.
Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas supply, the world’s third largest proven oil reserves, its geopolitically significant location, military capabilities, cultural hegemony, regional influence, and role as the world’s focal point of Shia Islam makes it a state of great interest.
Since coming to power in 1979, the Ayatollah started an aggressive export of their fiery brand of Islam across the region to the consternation of all their neighbours.
By that policy, the Iranian Supreme leadership marked itself as enemies of its fellow Muslim neighbours such that “their hands were against everybody, and everybody’s hands were against them”.
Buoyed by this, Saddam Hussein of Iraq attacked Iran resulting in the eight year war (First Gulf War 1980 to 1988). The war came to an end when both countries accepted the United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 in 1988.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US provided tacit support to Iraq, while officially maintaining neutrality. The US claimed it provided intelligence and diplomatic support to Iraq. Interestingly, both the US, and the Soviet Union did not actively oppose Iraq’s war effort. And Iraq was openly financed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Arab states.
The US viewed Iraq as a counterbalance to Iran, particularly after the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. But when it was time to take out Saddam, all that mattered less because they’ll prop another counterbalancing force.
Interestingly, the only Arab countries that allied with Iran were Syria and Libya. And you know where they are today. Equally interesting is that the same Arab neighbours that supported and financed Iraq during the war with Iran are the same countries Saddam attacked first during the Second Gulf War.
As a Petrol head, one important fact I must not fail to highlight is that all thanks to the Shah of Iran, that we today have the Geländewagen (G-Wagon). The Shah was a car fanatic who invested heavily in automobile companies. He was the single largest shareholder of Mercedes-Benz at a time, commanding about 25% ownership.
In one of his visits to Stuttgart Germany, he challenged the engineers to take cues from the Jeep Wrangler, the Range Rover, and the Land Cruiser, and come up with something far superior that would be rugged, versatile, and reliable off-road vehicle capable of tackling extreme military and rural conditions.
Mercedes-Benz listened and went to work. In collaboration with Steyr-Daimler-Puch, now Magna Steyr, they came up with the initial design and development and have continued to manufacture the G-Class in Graz, Austria. According to Mercedes Benz, each G-Class is meticulously hand-built and every vehicle must endure rigorous testing on the Schöckl mountain, a 1,445-meter peak near the Graz facility. This grueling off-road course ensures that every G-Class is as tough and capable as its reputation demands, earning its nickname, the “Schöckl-Proofed” vehicle.
We are here today. And as the American futurist Aldous Huxley said, “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
Kelechi Deca, a journalist writes from Lagos.
