INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
year before the Islamic Revolution
She held talks with Mohammad Reza Shah and cajoled him into buying more British-made weapons and military equipment in a bid to create jobs
Thatcher discussed with the Shah the sale of British weapons to Iran and the construction of a military-industrial complex near Isfahan
She said during the meeting with Shah that Iran's purchases of military equipment had created thousands of jobs in Britain, at a time when
coronation in 1925 and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty
dictatorship in the country in line with their colonial goals.It was the British who removed Reza Shah from power and replaced him with his
son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1941 after they detested him for his alleged inclination towards Germany during World War II.During Mohammad
It was them who, in cooperation with the newly arrived Americans, staged the 1953 coup against the democratically elected government of
Indeed, the Shah succumbed to a decade-long plot designed by the British Empire
Bahrain declared independence as the result of a sham process orchestrated by Britain.Events like those raised popular resentment against
The Brits also had the Shah's intelligence apparatus, SAVAK.Ten days after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Callaghan vowed
through his Foreign Secretary, David Owen, that he would recognize the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan in Iran
But two months after that, when Thatcher took office in May, she announced that her country would reconsider its recognition of the new
That announcement was the beginning of a hostile policy that the new U.K
prime minister adopted during her 11-year tenure towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.However, she refused to grant political asylum to
proposal on the necessity of a military attack on Iran in response to the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran
Subsequently, she accepted the U.S
call to join the economic sanctions against Iran, and in 1980, she voiced the U.K.'s support for the Eagle Claw Operation by the U.S
commandos to airlift the Embassy staff held in Tehran
The operation ended in a catastrophe for the U.S
troops after a sandstorm grounded the troops and destroyed their military equipment in the Tabas Desert in northeastern Iran.A few days
after the failure of the U.S
operation, the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London began
A siege ensued by the British government while some of the anti-Iran demands from the hostage takers were met, such as the broadcasting of
their demands on British television
statement expressing condolences over his demise
There were other assaults against the Iranian diplomatic premises and other interests in the U.K
Moreover, in June 1984, the Thatcher government expelled five Iranian diplomats from the United Kingdom, which met with a backlash from
severed diplomatic relations with Iran on 7 March 1989 in protest over a fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini over the publication of Salman
Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in the UK
This article first appeared/also appeared in Tehran Times
