Wednesday, May 19, 2004

The Persian Sphinx

Recently, I have been reading, The Persian sphinx. The book seems to be Amir Abbas Hoveyda’s biography, but it’s not just like an ordinary life story. The Author, Abbas Milani, describes many important details of Iran’s contemporary history through narrating Hoveyda’s life. One thing that caught my attention most, was the America’s roles and influences in Iran’s affairs during that periods. They were there for almost 4 decades, from the end of Second World War until the revolution in 1979. Before America, Britain had been had most weight on Iran’s politic and politicians for years. But the 1953 coup d'état against Mohammad Mossadegh’s legitimate government, orchestrated by America and Britain, and bringing back the Shah on power, created a great atmosphere for American to get more involved in Iran and the Middle East. However this incident created lots of problem for them after revolution and it became one of the key reasons of occupying the America’s embassy.
Beside getting advantage of Iran’s rich oil resources, Americans really tried to democratize the system of government as well. In so many instances they wanted to get rid of the Shah but there was not any clear policy on Iran at those days. Especially changing the administrations would make happen different situations and bring new aspects. In that period a group of young highly educated politicians, included Hoveyda, attempted their best to reform the system severely. They started very well and Americans supported and encouraged them as well. But some small mistakes and Iran’s very complicated society caused them lots of problem. The pro American prime minister, who was the leader of the newly established political party, was assassinated by a member of an extremist Islamic group. Though this incident did not stop the reform process in Iran but it changed the factual path of it and brought a limited economical reform and less political changes.
According to some conspiracy theories, it’s believed that Iran’s revolution was happened to avoid Iran of falling in the hands of Soviet Union’s. But I believe that was taken place by the hands of two different factions to stop America’s influences in Iran. Islamic extremists, supported by Britain and Marxists, backed by former Soviet Union. They worked together harmoniously to topple the Shah and they succeeded. It was clear for Mullahs and Britain that Iranians, who were % 99 Muslim, would never accept Marxism. In that new game, directed by Britain, after the people of Iran, Americans were the biggest losers.
Indeed most fanatic group took over the country and established one of the weirdest systems of government in the world. The system, which helped to give birth to many other terrorist groups and rise against America.

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