Iran v UK & US: Briefing Notes
Background
(a) The US and UK (CIA & MI6) overthrew the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, which wanted to nationalise Anglo-Persian oil, installing and maintaining in power the brutal and repressive Shah.
(b) Opposition to the Shah’s rule was largely confined to the mosques, hence the leading role of clerics in the resistance and revolution.
(c) The US has never forgiven Iran for the 1979 revolution and holding hostage US embassy staff for 444 days, as well as Jimmy Carter’s failed rescue mission. Washington encouraged Iran to acquire nuclear weapons when the country was ruled by the Shah.
(d) In the eyes of the US, Iran’s greatest crime is that Tehran doesn’t take orders from Washington, what the US State Department calls Iran’s “successful defiance” of the US. Hence designations of Iran as a “rogue state”, “terrorist sponsor”, “religious extremists”, etc.
(e) The US opposed Iranian support for Hezbollah in Lebanon (created out of the Israeli attack & occupation) which it blames for the October 1983 bombing of US Marines (241 deaths). Israel has never forgiven Hezbollah for expelling IDF forces from southern Lebanon in 1999.
(f) The USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air flight 655 over Iranian airspace on 3 July 1988, killing 290 Iranian civilians (including 66 children). Although it paid Iran compensation, the US did not admit legal liability or formerly apologise to Iran.
(g) The United States strongly backed Saddam Hussein after he invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 and throughout the eight year war, including the period when Saddam used poison gas on the Kurds of Halabja — which the Americans knowingly and falsely blamed on Iran.
(h) The US opposes Iran’s regional influence in Syria, Lebanon & Yemen and shares Israel’s regional obsession with Iran.
(i) Along with Iraq and North Korea, Iran was encouraged to go nuclear by George W. Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ SOTU speech in 2002.
(j) Iran was handed a cost-free victory in Iraq in 2003 by Washington (Iraq is 60+% Shia).
More recently
(k) In May 2018 Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA negotiated by Barack Obama in 2015 — under pressure from right wing hawks, and for reflexive product differentiation from Obama. He also imposed “maximum pressure” on Iran in the form of harsh economic sanctions (including financial sanctions) which have no basis in international law, and is pressuring other states not to buy Iranian oil.
(l) Hawks in the White House (Bolton, Pompeo) plus the Saudis, Israel & UAE- who are pushing for military strikes on Iran are up against Trump’s isolationist instincts. Most Congressional Democrats support military attacks but the Pentagon, which has unsuccessfully war-gamed Iran for years, is opposed.
(m) Unsurprisingly, Iran no longer feels bound by the JCPOA and its economy is suffering under US sanctions. It has not, however, formally breeched or withdrawn from the JCPOA.
(n) On June 13, 2019, two oil tankers were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz while they transited the Gulf of Oman.The Japanese Kokuka Courageous and Norwegian Front Altair were attacked, allegedly with limpet mines or possibly flying objects. The attacks took place a month after the similar incident (12 May 2019) on the same day the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Iran. The US, UK, and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attacks, while the Japanese and the UAE claim there is a lack of conclusive evidence establishing responsibility. The US committed an additional 1,000 troops to the region.
(o) Following claims by Iran that it had destroyed a US “spy” drone in its airspace with a surface to air missile on 21 June 2019 (Washington admits the drone was shot down but says it was in international airspace), Trump announces that the US naval ship the USS Boxer had shot down an Iranian drone in the Persian Gulf on 18 June 2019 using electronic jamming. This is disputed by Iran.
(p) In early July 2019, 30 Royal Marines seized the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 as it tried to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, impounding it in Gibraltar on the grounds that it was carrying Iranian oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions forbidding oil exports to Syria. Iran disputes these claims and says the ship’s capture was “an act of piracy”. There are claims that Washington ordered London to interdict the ship. Iran is not subject to EU law.
(q) In what appears to be a tit for tat response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards captured a British-flagged oil tanker, the Sten Impero, as it entered the Strait of Hormuz on 19 July 2019. The tanker had 23 people but no oil on board. Iran claims the Stena Impero turned off its tracker and ignored several warnings to turn it back on.
(r) Canberra endorsed Washington’s criticism of Iran’s move away from the JCPOA, but conspicuously omitted mentioning Trump’s preceding unilateral withdrawal in May 2018. On 28 June 2019 Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would consider any US request for assistance with military action against Iran “seriously and on its merits”.
Conclusion
Iran has very low military expenditures by regional standards, much less than most other countries — dwarfed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel — and that its military doctrine is essentially based on deterrence. This is the view of US intelligence, which would not change in the unlikely event that Iran acquired nuclear weapons.
Iran has every right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of economic and diplomatic warfare from Washington and London. This conflict is almost entirely confected by the West and Australia should be counselling caution and restraint, not an openness to joining yet another potentially catastrophic Western intervention in the Middle East.
Without any apparent Irony, Iran is accused of “meddling” in it’s own region by states such as the US and UK, with a long history of imperial conquest and rule across the Middle East.
Canberra should not get sucked into regional power plays by Israel and Gulf tyrannies such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who see Washington, London and their Western allies as gullible proxies who will confront and weaken Iran on their behalf.
