by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog
U.S. officials have now made clear that if U.S. forces become removed from Iraq as Iraq’s Parliament unanimously demanded and Iraq’s Prime Minister affirmed on January 5th, then the U.S. will try to break Iraq up into separate Sunni and Shia nations, and will also definitely impose sanctions against Iraq or (if Iraq becomes successfully broken up) against the Shia-governed portion of Iraq, in order to destroy Iraq (or the Shiite regions in Iraq) totally.
The U.S. is determined to separate both Lebanon and Syria (both of which are supported by Shia Iran) from Iran so that Iran will become internationally isolated unless and until Iran again becomes controlled by the U.S. Government as it was during the period from 1953 when U.S. imposed the Shah’s dictatorship there, till 1979, when Iranians finally took back control over their country and kicked out the U.S.-and-allied foreign oil companies.
By far the best international journalism about the situation today regarding Iraq has come from the Middle East Eye, which headlined on January 23rd, “US seeking to carve out Sunni state as its influence in Iraq wanes”, and sub-headed, “With Shia parties pressuring American troops to leave, Washington wants to create an autonomous region around Anbar to maintain its presence.” Their reporter in Baghdad, Suadad al-Salhy, stated that,
Backed into a corner and influence waning, the United States has in recent weeks been promoting a plan to create an autonomous Sunni region in western Iraq, officials from both countries told Middle East Eye.
The US efforts, the officials say, come in response to Shia Iraqi parties’ attempts to expel American troops from their country.
Iraq represents a strategic land bridge between Iran and its allies in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Establishing a US-controlled Sunni buffer zone in western Iraq would deprive Iran of using land routes into Syria and prevent it from reaching the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
For Washington, the idea of carving out a Sunni region dates back to a 2007 proposition by Joe Biden, who is now vying to be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. …
“The creation of a Sunni region has always been an option for the US. The Iranians cannot be allowed to reach the Mediterranean Sea or benefit from the land bridge connecting them to Hezbollah” in Lebanon, the former US official told MEE.
“The project is American, not Sunni. The presence of the American forces has been the guarantor for the Sunnis and the Kurds, so if the US has to leave Iraq, then establishing a Sunni region in western Iraq is its plan to curb Iran and its arms in the Middle East,” he added.
“We are talking about establishing a country, not an administrative region.” …
The Arab Gulf states allied to US, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, support and finance this project, Sunni and Shia leaders and officials told MEE.
“Funding is in place, international pressure is in place, and the necessary military strength is in place to create this region,” a prominent Sunni leader familiar with the talks said.
“Neither Iran nor the Shia forces will be able to stand against the project because the US and Gulf states back it,” the leader added.
“A huge amount of money and investment offered by the Sunni states is at stake, and these will turn the Anbar desert into green oases and rebuild the destroyed areas in Mosul and Salah al-Din. Who will care about oil?”
This is a war by U.S., Saudi Arabia, the other Arab oil monarchies, and Israel, against Iran, and it will become also a U.S.-v.-Russia war unless Russia complies with America’s demand to stay out, and not to defend Iran.
Anbar Province is one of two places where the fanatical Sunni ISIS was located in Iraq, the other being the city of Mosul directly to the north of Anbar. Both areas are so heavily Sunni so that in order for Iraq’s mainly Shiite government to become able to wage an effective war against ISIS in Iraq, it first had to convince Anbar’s residents that this would be something which would benefit all of Iraq and not only Shiites in Iraq. Fallujah and Ramadi, two cities where Iraq’s Government were especially trying to defeat ISIS in 2014, are in Anbar Province. Until 2015, Iranian General Soleimani’s forces (all of them Shiites) were virtually the only effective forces trying to exterminate ISIS; and therefore, Iraq’s Government had to emphasize that killing ISIS was a patriotic, not a sectarian, matter. On 17 September 2016 U.S. President Obama bombed Syria’s army in the heart of Syria’s oil-producing region, the city Deir Ezzor, for Syria’s ISIS to move in and take Syria’s oil. During October through December 2016, two of Syria’s main enemies, Obama, and Turkey’s leader Erdogan, established a system to reinforce ISIS in Deir Ezzor, by supplying them ISIS fighters fleeiing from Mosul in Iraq’s north. On 11 December 2016, I headlined “Obama & Erdogan Move ISIS from Iraq to Syria, to Weaken Assad”, and reported that the U.S. and Turkey were offering a deal to fighters for ISIS in Mosul, a way to stay alive but not in Iraq. They would relocate west into Syria, so as to assist the U.S. and its allies to overthrow, or at least seize territory from, Syria’s Government. America’s war against Syria used basically three proxy-forces as boots-on-the-ground: Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Kurds — all three being Sunnis. The Sauds provided most of the funding for it, because the goal was to place Syria under the control of the Sauds. And the U.S. sticks by that goal. No matter how much the people in Syria oppose it. It’s not only Trump who is obsessed with this goal; Obama was, though he wasn’t as obsessed with destroying Iran as Trump is.
On January 24th, Middle East Eye’s Washington reporter Ali Harb headlined “At what point do US troops in Iraq become an occupation force?” and he took the most literalist approach possible to this question, in which the obvious answer should be “as soon as we invaded and occupied the country on 20 March 2003.” He got an answer from the U.S. Government, saying that “diplomatic notes, which are not public, remain the legal basis for the presence of about 5,000 American soldiers in Iraq today” and that “the letters contain a provision that gives US forces one year to withdraw after they are formally asked by Baghdad to leave.” So: if this U.S. Government, which has become infamous for violating its contracts (such as the Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris Climate Agreement), alleges that it can stay in Iraq for another year and yet still remain within the bounds of those “diplomatic notes, which are not public” — and which a supplicant Iraqi Government had allegedly consented to in 2014 — then Iraq’s Government will need to wait until 5 January 2021 before accusing the U.S. Government of violating that secret and coerced “1-year cancellation clause.” And, if Iraq’s Government is, at that time, still insisting that U.S. terminate its occupation of Iraq, then, Joe Biden’s 2007 plan will start being implemented, to break Iraq into its Shiite Arab southeast (friendly toward Iran), Sunni Kurd northeast (backed by U.S.), and Sunni Arab southwestern desert half of Iraq’s expanse (hostile toward Iran). There would be no more land-connection between Iran to Iraq’s east and Syria to Iraq’s west. For Iran, that would be like cutting off its two arms. Furthermore, Ali Harb noted that the Obama-Trump Administrations’ Pentagon official Brett McGurk said that “If the U.S. leaves Iraq, it means NATO, 20 western partners also leave.” McGurk was suggesting that Iraq without U.S. would become then again a U.S. enemy. The U.S. regime is determined to destroy, one by one, each country that tries to block U.S.-and-allied billionaires from taking them over. Here are two maps of Iraq, which show what trisecting Iraq would mean:
So: Syria would be surrounded by U.S. allies.
According to MEE’s Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad,
Leaders familiar with the ongoing talks on partitioning Iraq said that Sunni politicians are seriously involved in the discussions and are waiting to see the demonstrations’ outcome before deciding on their path.
“The meetings are taking place in full swing, and all the Sunni leaders are attending. But they deny this publicly, waiting for the conditions that protect them,” a prominent Sunni leader familiar with the talks told MEE.
If the protesters are able to force through a national government that takes care of all Iraqi communities, then the Sunnis will reject any planned autonomous area, the leader said.
Failure to achieve this, he warned, would see Sunnis supporting the partition project en masse.
“Sunnis do not want to be part of the Shia crescent, and refuse to submit to Iranian control. So they will offer the Americans permission to build military bases in their lands, in exchange for the necessary support to establish the desired region.”
The Atlantic Council is NATO’s main PR organization. Ali Harb freported:
“We’re not at a point where the US and Iraq are enemies,” said Abbas Kadhim, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Center think-tank in Washington. …
Kadhim, of the Atlantic Council, called for negotiating an American military withdrawal from Iraq in a way that would ease the tensions of the past few weeks and preserve the strategic partnership between Washington and Baghdad. …
Kadhim said the “knee-jerk reactions” that Baghdad and Washington have been displaying are not helpful.
“At the end of the day, the United States cannot impose its troops on Iraq. There’s no justification for keeping troops in Iraq against the will of the Iraqi people, and it’s not in the interest of the United States to do that,” he told MEE. …
The US envoy for the Coalition against IS, James Jeffery, … also issued an implicit warning to Baghdad on Thursday [Jan. 23].
At a news conference, he said that if the US and Iraq were to negotiate a troop withdrawal, everything else would be on the table, including Washington’s diplomatic support to Baghdad.
“We’re not interested in sitting down and talking only about withdrawal,” Jeffery said.
“Any conversations that the Iraqis want to have with us about the United States in Iraq, we believe should and must cover the entire gamut of our relationship, which goes way beyond our forces, goes way beyond security.”
Kadhim said imposing sanctions on Iraq would be harmful to both nations and counterproductive to Washington’s stated aim of reducing Iranian influence in Baghdad.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
I sense that US “conversations” with Iraq have started with the halt of weapons/ammo supply to Iraq and would likely move in the next phase to reiterate that Iraqi oil money in controlled by the US Treasury and thus would be seized, just as the US did with Iran’s oil money following the revolution.
Contrast that with the serial swill put out by endlessly the msm about the root cause of the ongoing woes in those lands:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/muslim-world-saudi-iraq-iran-egypt-lebanon/605431/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The Muslim World’s Question: ‘What Happened to Us?’
Understanding the events of 1979 is crucial for those trying to figure out a better future for today’s Middle East.
To “tom”: When I click onto that link, I come to an advertisement to subscribe to that “serial swill” magazine The Atlantic. But I don’t think that you were intending to be bringing more income to that “serial swill.” Better, then, would have been to have linked to one of the archived versions of that article, or to archive it yourself, such as at http://archive.is/H1htg which, when clicked onto will bring the reader to the article instead of to an advertisement to subscribe to “serial swill.” Whereas some publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, block archiving, in order slightly to increase their number of subscribers, those publications thereby lose scholar-generated traffic and also are far less linked-to by other articles (since the paywall is more impenetrable at such publications). Other publishers, such as The Atlantic, want to attract the respect of scholars, not repel it, and therefore don’t block archiving. The Wall Street Journal is interested only in the short term; they don’t care about whether scholars refer to their publication. The WSJ seeks money in the here-and-now, not respect among historians. But, if The Atlantic had had that type of paywall, you probably wouldn’t have read that article to begin with.
This article is a typical product of a DC think tank brainwashed foot soldier. The author uses a young progressive’s useful myopia to hide the sinister Zionist plan of fracturing Middle East, by childishly explaining the past 40 years as a Saudi vs Iran rivalry – thereby relegating responsibility of imperial hubris, and its purposeful proliferation of Islamism, onto the victim nations. Iranians who soon realized they were mere pawns in 1979 zionist color revolution, quickly began fighting back but have been tackled with Saddam invasion, severe sanctions, Saudi Wahhabism, Saudi paid sectarianism, Israeli paid secterianism, and every form of other warfare imaginable, from economic warfare, cyber warfare, agricultural warfare, water sabotage all the way to space and biowarfare… Soleimani actually undid the terror of Israeli trained Saudi funded mercenaries like al Qaeda, ISIS and their innumerable variations. The region and the world owe Soleimani a great debt. He was a most humane general. Unbelievably kind while incredibly wise as to the enemy of humanity. All who knew him were in awe of his generous spirit and his strength in the face of ruthlessness of the Zionist mercenaries.
“Fallujah and Ramadi, two cities where Iraq’s Government were especially trying to defeat ISIS in 2014, are in Anbar Province”.
So the US government, in this alternate universe, is going to try to enlist the help of people in Fallujah and Ramadi to fight against their fellow Muslims in Iran?
The US armed forces besieged Fallujah, prevented any males over about 15 from leaving, then flattened the entire city – using heavy artillery, bombs, rockets and illegal white phosphorus. They killed thousands of people, many or most of them civilians.
Ramadi was also hit hard.
Maybe, while they’re at it, they will be looking to hire citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to help them design bigger and better thermonuclear weapons.
@Tom. Despite Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan licks the boots of US.
Vietnam licks the boots.
Kosovo licks the boots.
Why not Falluja and Ramadi lick the boots?
It’s been 75 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed. That’s about 2.5 generations. Young people will have accepted the hideous events and, many of them rationalised that “Japan deserved it”. Just as most Germans have rationalised that “Germany deserved it because Holocaust”.
The ghastly massacres in Fallujah and other cities happened a mere 15 or so years ago. Almost everyone who witnessed them is still alive, and the youngest ones are just at the prime age to become fighters.
True… Perhaps, those who lick the boots are just the elites, corrupt as they are everywhere. The people are just as stupid as can be with th media brainwashing them non stop. This is why it is possible that the US will think about hiring them for a few coins, which they certaily need.
Exactly, Tom. A lot of water has passed down the Euhrates since 2014. There are plenty Sunni Iraqi units among the Hash’d al-Shaabi PMUs. No-one in Fallujah will be able to forget what was done: the cancers and the monstrous births will see hatred of America persist for a few thousand years.
Biden is a criminal idiot, ignorant to a degree. He has zero comprehension of what he’s jabbering about. Iraq is lost, there’s no turning back, they understand that they fight for Iraq, not for a sectarian mirage. And the game is on now: there’s gonna be a heap of brain-injured mercenary Yanqui grunts gong home in wheelchairs, or boxes.
It’s not the people who desire it. It IS the people who seek power and wealth who desire it. It has always been that way. Until people wake to this en-masse and act in concert to stop it, it will be ever thus.
And it is the people who seek power and wealth and have the means to control and influence others that the American government is talking to. Eliminate those people from the discussion and substitute with people who really represent the majority of the people and the result might be different.
The US is just plain evil. It will stop at nothing to pillage. It cares not for anything except its narrow goals. There must be a broad coalition of free nations that will strike and destroy it. Until Washington is in flames there will be no freedom on earth.
The ” Rule of Unintended Consequences ” is alive and well in regard to the disastrous Foreign Policies of the United States……as the US follows instructions by the Country’s Israeli Masters. These adventures will not end well for the Americans or for that Zionist State. One might consider reading a book by Israel Shahak entitled ; Jewish History, Jewish Religion- New Edition. Just reading the Foreward to the book by Gore Vidal is revelatory.
Thanks for mentioning this book. As someone who was born Jewish and even went to a Zionist summer camp, I got a nagging feeling that something was off in Jewish culture. I was raised with the idea of universality, that ‘Never again’ meant for everybody.
But as we know, Israel and much of Jewish society haven’t gotten that message and we’re all the worse for it.
It’s not necessary to buy the book. The forwards state the case quite well.
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-History-Religion-Thousand-Political/dp/0745328407
read it online:
Israel Shahak — Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years
or here:
https://archive.org/details/11ShahakJewishHistoryJewishReligion/
‘The ”Rule of Unintended Consequences” is alive and well…’
IMHO a better term is “stupidity”. It’s stupid and thoughtless people who always complain about the supposed “law”. All it really means is that they didn’t trouble to find out the likely consequences of their own foolish and reckless actions.
The phrase really reflects a huge degree of entitlement. They think they are entitled to succeed all the time, whatever they do, however ignorant they are.
They are wrong.
Except the law its self is on trial right now, and some in the field of law are choosing the ignorant path rather than the prudent one. The term “everything you say(or don’t say occasionally) can and will be used against you in the court of law”, applies to the field of law also.
I guess there are various reasons for the U.S. invasion of Syria (i.e. ISIS). I’ve heard pipelines and oil and Greater Israel. I suppose the last reason listed is similar to what I’ve concluded is the primary reason: the Shia land bridge from Iran to Lebanon/Palestine. Much of the efforts in that reason seem to be associated with blocking the land bridge.
This is going to be difficult at best as the Shia are the majority holders of currency in Iraq and have probably back stopped their savings, sending the financial pain over to the remaining two religious factions. And should the Arab world decide that the Americans are a greater threat to the Arab world than the Arab world are to each other, watch out, this might not end well for the western military presence in the middle east.
Interesting times indeed.
Let s say that it is destiny.
Iraq today has 2 paths offered.
The shamefull short road to material consumerism and atheism. The western way to eternal dependency and contempt.
Or the proud hard road to independence and self accomplishment.
It is in the iraq leadership hands now. Are they worthy ?
Iraq will only get what they deserve.
It depends on their own will power, ruse and ruthlessness.
Afghan can do it.
Yemen can do it.
Syria can do it.
Iran can do it.
Is Iraq spiritually a broken people like German and Japanese ? Are they willing to be slave to the Angli Zionist ?
That is the question.
It still is GTFO to the USA, and for the Iraqis to make this happen. Period. They know it and have to act!
Assad needs to get back land east of Euphrates ASAP methinks.
What results would an honest and verifiable referendum yield on the issue of foreign military presence?
the author reads too much into the US statements, elevating them into
‘truths’
i disagree. the us is done in MENA. the falluha sunnis surely wont follow us diktat.
and the kurds already got burned by the us, and all surrounding countries wont allow
an independent kurdistan anyways.
we had all this talk before. removed. Mod.
The Oded Yinon Plan in full swing? But that is what was all about at all times.
Is this a u.s. war against Iran, or an israeli war against Iran using pindo tools?
Those who have spent any time living in North America realize that the USAnians are very, very close to catastrophic political, economic, cultural, and psychological collapse. The Imperial Global policy of “F*ck You, Pay Me” has hollowed out the USAnian military, almost every domestic industry that support that military, as well as the families that surrender their blood as cannon fodder to that military, the farmers that feed those families, the truck drivers that move that food, and so on. You get the picture. Even as they threaten the weakest and poorest nations into servitude, Imperial Globalists are actively breaking up USAnian states with draconian laws, for example, with domestic gun control laws, that contradict the very USAnian Constitution that legitimizes those same Imperials.
Questions is: Will the brain parasite that inhabits the USAnian governments collective mind order a Nuclear Final Solution against the surface of planet Earth, once its assumed power slips away from its twisted clawed tentacles? It is a real possiblity, particularly in light of the fact that the monsters have already constructed and provisioned “Safe Spaces” for themselves deep beneath the Earth’s surface. Will Planet Earth survive? The answer partially lies in the answer to a different question: Are Humans Smarter Than Yeast?
Observer from Mordor– “are humans smarter than Yeast?” –Ha ha! Consider what vast (often locked-up) potential lies between the donkey like ears of human beings………. once you get a relatively small number of people heading in the same direction (similar to herding cats, yes?) the potential for evil–or good– is truly immense. I know that the evil has an absolutely demonic determination. In this generation the children of darkness are wiser than the children of Light, about some things. You mention the underground “safe spaces” : 99% of the creatures that believe these facilities will “save” them will go stark raving insane (even more insane than they already are) within 72 hours of being stuck underground. Hmmm, maybe the sooner they all dive underground the better!
In as much as yeast has never been seen to commit suicide…
Nor do groundhogs, yet.
Is America acting this way because Exxon-Mobil has discovered 10 billion barrels of oil in Guyana so far?
There are rumors that Guyana might have over 500 billion barrels of offshore oil. At the rate Exxon is discovering these wells in a tiny part of the offshore block, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Uncle Sam might use the oil reserves of Venezuela’s neighbour as a temporary supply, but if the country has twice the oil that Saudi Arabia has for its offshore oil reserves, why would Uncle Sam have the need to bully Iraq and Iran?
Uncle Sam would he just tell Iraq and Iran to take a hike if Guyana has billions of barrels of oil reserves?
Edit: You are right. Guyana currently has 9.5 billion barrels of oil (local news and Wikipedia). You might be right of the 500 billion figure though I digress. Exxon currently has plans to drill 40 more oil blocks this year with a success rate of 90% that each well is at least 1 to 1.5 billion barrels of oil. That’s a lot.
“…why would Uncle Sam have the need to bully Iraq and Iran?”
It’s not so much a need as a desire. The main reason is to be able to deny oil and gas to other countries (such as China) – or to threaten doing so.
The people who run the USA are compelled to threaten, squeeze, exploit and kill. Even when they have far more money than they could ever spend, even when their power is grossly obscene. It’s who they are. It’s not enough that they should win – everyone else must lose.
The U.S. debt bomb figures suggest that the country does not have as much money as you believe, or they could be reducing their debt with the proceeds from oil rather than starting wars all over the place.
The US reign is over…..it’s becoming more clear and transparent every single day. Americans are sick of the ME….and if Trump hasn’t withdrawn from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan by October, I will not vote for him in 2020
It does not matter who will win in the 2020 presidential election. The military-industrial complex is still there. Israhell is still there.
I’m afraid that FORCE will have to be used to get the USA out of Iraq . Life should be made unbearable for these a$$holes – – rocket attacks & no American safe on your streets. If you can do this the cowardly War mongers will be happy to leave — they are despicable & totally untrustworthy.
It would take just one missile striking Dubai’s airport for the flow of money from the UAE to this phantasmal project to dry up
I wonder whether the population of Fallujah will dance for the USA. This city was bombed to smithereens some 15 years ago, the area is still radioactive from the depleted uranium they used. The amount of children born with birth defects thanks to that is still high, I don’t even dare to link to sites where these gruesome defects are pictured.
And it’s not only Fallujah – birth defects are high around any USA base, due to their burning of waste in open pits. Besides their immense carbon footprint, does this Swedish girl also have an opinion about that?
There is more at stake then breaking the Shia crescent. Recently I read text from the Iraqi PM, who sated that he refused an offer of the USA to help rebuilding, because they also wanted 50% of their oil revenues. So, the Iraqi PM started talking with the Chinese, who are interested in expanding their Silk Roads. The USA is still furious about that.
But, on the long term there might be some hope.
Israel, with its psychopatic obsession with Iran (yearning for a Purim 2.0), is becoming more and more ungovernable. Add to that, they have a dark demographic time bomb ticking. Orthodox Jews are outbreeding the rest in a daft pace. Orthodox Jews don’t learn useful stuff in school like math and science, so they are pretty worthless for labor and a large majority lives on social security. That society is poisoning itself.
Saudi Arabia is slowly but steady running out of oil, water and money. It still can take some years, but eventually the House of Saud will collapse. That will have serious consequences.
Cheers, Rob
WRONG title…it should read…
“U.S. Demands Iraq Either Join U.S. War Against Iran [AND BE DESTROYED] or Be Destroyed”
And it should have a big fat AGAIN after both of the words “destroyed” in the title.
Talk about a rock and a hard place!
With MIGA and Fatboy ‘at the helm’ Warshington dives to even greater depths of unbridled depravity…without even mentioning “the deal of the century”…if this wasn’t so utterly tragic it would be just a very sad sick joke.
This sort of irresponsible outrageous nonsense is not only extremely dangerous for the whole ME region but absolutely for the entire human race.
YCHMTSU
Col
Speaking of “the deal of the century”…George Galloway said it way better than me…
He called it a “Mix of tragedy & farce”.
The human race has its checks and balances my friend, what seems as dangerous to one person, can actually be someones else’s solution to their own problems.
Its not fair but it may be justified, its may not be explainable, but rests its case on proof, you may like it or you may not. But in the long run it simply doesn’t matter, as you unknowingly may have already been granted a stay of execution and this alone may be a reason to,….trust the gods, they’ve been here before so to some extent, do not only know what they are doing, but also have no choice in the matter..
It is a pitty that Eric Zuesse isnt updated on the ‘Iranian revolution’ in 1979.
Nobody broke free.
The Shah was removed because there was a threat to the dollar hegemony and from the Shahs policies to develop his country in collaboration with both east and west.
The least discussed aspect is that nuclear power was to be spread to the developing nations.
This was both a threat against the malthusian antidevelopment agenda and the perspective of a more extensive use of nuclear energy threatened the petrodollar arrangement.
The Hollywood production China Syndrom from that time suspiciously preceeded the Three Mile Island incident by a week. And the circumstances indicated more than credible negligense, so sabotage is plausible.
The concerned political authorities hade an outspoken negative view of nuclear power, in line with the Rome Clubs outlook.
Another not much discussed circumstance was that the continental rivals of the Us/Uk were making plans for a novel financial instrument to support the above-mentioned development plans.
The Ussr, West Germany, France and Japan were involved.
Westgerman Socialdemocrat Helmut Schmit negotiated a deal with Brezhnev and Giscard d’Estaing was on the french side.
And Opec. The idea was to see that European financial instrument supported by energy presumably both from oil and nuclear in exchange for the industrialisation of the developing nations.
Semiofficially Carter, adviced by Brzinsky, supported the coup in order to block ‘Soviet advances’, but the above-mentioned financial operation was seen as a serious threat to the Us/Uks financial interests and the Uk was strongly against it.
Maybe the french and british bankers were not aligned?
BBC was very much involved in helping Khomeini with his taped appeals to the Iranians.
The Us/Uk employed the usual methods for regime change, and the Shah hesitated to strike down, but he knew it was the Us who was behind it.
Khomeini immediately cancelled Irans nuclear programs. And had those who were familiar with his background eliminated.
Khomeini apparently spoke only 200 words of Irans native language and his ancestry was obscure.
When the Us embassy was occupied, the Us got an excuse to intervene and threatened Europe and those involved in the plans to switch off the oil taps if the plans proceeded.
This has fallen into the memoryhole.
One journalist Robert Dreyfus published Hostage for Khomeini (1981) and Executive Intelligence Review published many articles about the financial project during 1978 to 1981 or so.
Eric Zuesse really ought to consider getting a copy of Dreyfus’ book.
And while he is at it I advice him to try buying Nikolai Starikov’s, ‘Who helped the reds win the civil war’ (for example from some russian webshop) in order to remove the illusions upheld by many leftists, that the white armies were helped by the west against the bolsheviks.
The whites were actually undermined by the west and the Us/Uk mounted a psyop, marching demonstratively in front of the public to provoke them thereby aiding Lenin to recruit to the reds, and while the actual fighting by the Us/Uk wasnt very extensive, there was definitely a prolonged obstruction against the white armies by the british forces. Starikov provides good insight about it.
This latter issue came up recently when a decent swedish historian protested the rewriting of history to blackpaint and distort the truth about the M/R pact, and I totally agree with him, but I noticed that he shared the above-mentioned illusion concerning the russian civil war.
We better get updated ourselves when we lecture others, No?
There is no doubt whatsoever about the Iranian revolution being just as much a western supported coup as the events from 1953. In addition Mossadegh was a rich landowner while the Shah upset that class by buying up and distributing land to half a million common people. Those landowners were in favour of ousting the Shah.
In addition the Shah twarted the opium production, yet another reason why the imperialists were annoyed.
But both those leaders were apalled by the greed shown by the imperialists to grab most of the profits from Irans petroleum resources.