On 11 February 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah
"If you lift up Ayatollah Khomeini's beard, you'll find 'MADE IN ENGLAND' written on his chin," raged Shah of Iran Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, not long before the insurrectionary fervour which had angrily surged throughout his kingdom for a great many months finally swept him from power in January 1979, ending his nigh-on 38-year reign.
On the surface, it was a strange statement for the shah to utter — after all, he'd notoriously been reinstalled as Iran's supreme ruler by an Anglo-American coup in August 1953. Ever since too, he'd been a seemingly unwavering ally of London, militarily supporting various British-backed regimes in the Gulf region, becoming one of the country's biggest arms markets in the Middle East, and allowing British Petroleum to pillage the country's vast crude oil reserves at highly beneficial rates.
Moreover, the year prior, then-opposition leader Margaret Thatcher visited Tehran in April, offering a vehement reaffirmation of British support for Pahlavi's rule.
"I have watched the progress of Iran. I have been impressed by the speed and sureness with which an ancient land has transformed itself in a single generation from one of the world's poorer countries into one of
A mere two months later, then-Labour Foreign Secretary David Owen also signed off on the shipment of 175,000 CS gas cartridges and up to 360 unarmed armoured personnel carriers to Pahlavis' notorious internal security force, SAVAK — which the British helped train — in order to brutally crack down on the initial wave of
Just Because You're Paranoid…
Despite these rhetorical and practical efforts, the shah's allegations of British support for Khomeini were far from paranoid and bitter conspiracy theorizing. After all, Whitehall had a long-established history of backing the most extreme Islamic factions in the Middle East in order to counter threats to its regional interests, for instance covertly funding and directing the activities of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in an ultimately failed effort to depose then-leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s.
In fact, another Iranian Ayatollah, Sayyed Kashani, had played a pivotal role in ‘Operation Boot', the very coup d'etat that catapulted Pahlavi back to the throne, funding and
DECLASSIFIED. Here are lots of UK declassified files/articles on UK policy on #Iran. Especially UK role in 1953 coup and support for the Shah’s brutal ‘security’ service, Savak, in the 1960s and 70s. Also, recent secret collaboration with Israel over Iran. https://t.co/Aq19xu5F3r pic.twitter.com/mab5OuAZ58
— Mark Curtis (@markcurtis30) January 30, 2018
More importantly though, despite London's practical and rhetorical backing for the
While it was well-understood the removal of the
Furthermore though, in addition to expediently limiting damage to Britain's interests in the country, Foreign Office planners were looking ahead — to a time when they could once again install a leader more to their liking. By December 1978, they were arguing ministers should jettison all support for the shah — both public and private — and throw their weight behind the opposition.
"We needed someone with charisma who would only be in post for a few years, brave enough to make enemies, and ready later to step aside for the shah's son as a constitutional monarch," Foreign Secretary Owen wrote in his memoirs.
While there's no documentation directly indicating the British decided to back Khomeini as a leader-in-waiting — although it was certainly considered — the BBC Persian Service had for some time by that point been backing the still-exiled Ayatollah. Owen refers to this coverage — which was so pro-Khomeini some dubbed the station ‘Ayatollah BBC' as "a form of insurance with the internal opposition".
Its support was almost certainly crucial, given it was virtually the only radio station to cover Iranian events in Persian — Iran's own radio and TV networks had been shut down shortly after the anti-shah protests erupted.
In Persian Service: The BBC and British Interests in Iran, Annabelle Sreberny and Massoumeh Torfeh note the Service had "never been seen as so partial in its reporting as it was during those years, at times even seen to be overstepping the line", going so far as to prevent any and all pro-shah voices inside and outside from reaching the airwaves. The authors make clear this was
In an internal memo to BBC Persian staff, he suggests giving a platform to pro-shah individuals would amount to "short-term expediency" — the purpose of the station's broadcasts was to "operate in the medium and long-term, influencing those who might one day form an alternative government".
The King is Dead
The
Air #France pilot , knew who was Khomeini ; He knew what a great leader is his passenger ...
& he took his hand & guided leader Khomeini to Airport ...
This is internal heart power of Iran's Islamic Revolution .#بعثت_انقلاب pic.twitter.com/MMKIYyeMzJ
— MIVA (@official_miladv) February 4, 2019
Khomeini would return to Iran from exile 1 February that year, and soon appointed Mehdi Bazargan prime minister — 11 days later, in a speech in the House of Commons, Callaghan said his government "[looked] forward to establishing good relations" with Bazargan's administration. Despite Bazargan
"In winding up the contracts, we should not give the impression we are turning our backs on Iran…we should let the Iranians know we are ready, if they wish, to resume the supply of routine items such as ammunition and spare parts which are essential to the basic functions of their armed forces… We should also continue to encourage them to complete any contracts which they have not yet repudiated or defaulted on… In settling the
Britain's attempts to curry
Thatcher, elected prime minister in May that year, was keen to continue the previous government's policy of "reinsurance", and in addition, saw Iran as a potentially important bulwark against Soviet power in the Middle East. In a parliamentary speech on East-West relations on 28 January 1980, a month after the Red Army invasion of Afghanistan, the new premier warned Moscow could take advantage of the insurrectionary
"The revolution has stirred up feelings for ethnic autonomy among Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Baluchis and many other ethnic groups…the temptation to the Russians is apparent. There are signs that the Iranians themselves are increasingly aware of the danger. The Soviet Union has driven a wedge into the heart of the Muslim world. If its hold on Afghanistan is consolidated, the Soviet Union will have vastly extended its borders with Iran, acquired a border more than 1,000 miles long with Pakistan, and will have advanced to within 300 miles of the Straits of Hormuz, which control the Persian Gulf. These are the facts. They are a cause for alarm both to the countries of the region and to ourselves," she said.
May Day poster from the Tudeh party of Iran, 1977. pic.twitter.com/3QUd6ruh66
— Jacobin (@jacobinmag) May 1, 2018
As part of these continued efforts at cultivation, Britain aided Iranian authorities' destruction of Tudeh, the country's largest and most powerful left-wing political party. In 1982, KGB Major Vladimir Kuzichkin defected to
Score Draw
The violence unleashed by that disclosure would pale in comparison to the bloodshed unleashed by British contributions to the Iran-Iraq war, however. Two years earlier, Washington — intensely unhappy about Khomeini coming to power — contacted then-ruler of Iraq, a close US ally, and offered financial support and arms if he were to invade his upstart
In contravention of a UN embargo which banned the supply of arms to either country, both the US and UK would go on to arm both sides in the conflict, helping greatly extend and exacerbate a conflict which would claim the lives of one and a half million people over the course of nearly eight years. Iran would receive almost US$2 billion in weaponry over the course of the hostilities, while Iraq reaped US$4.7 billion.
No official was ever prosecuted,
London's extremely aggressive stance on Tehran in the present day is rendered all the more perverse given Whitehall played such a crucial role in promoting and supporting Khomeini before, during and after the Islamic revolution, turned a blind eye to his government's most extreme actions, and did its utmost to train and equip Iranian forces. One wonders how many British-made weapons are still