Abstract
Iran’s non-state foreign policy under the Shah’s rule had huge ramifications for the Middle Eastern power arrangement. The Shah built Iran’s strategic connections with the Iraqi Kurds and the Lebanese Shia to contain geopolitical and geocultural threats against Iran’s national integrity and security. At the same time, a deep institutional politics in Iran intervened in the trajectory and fate of these connections. Iran’s non-state foreign policy in the period of 1958–79 also shows the durability and continuity of geographical and historical forces in the future path(s) for the geopolitics of the Middle East and its regional balance of power.
“We are in a really terrible situation since Moscow’s twin pincers coming down through Kabul and Baghdad surround us,” the Shah shared his concern with Alam.
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Notes
- 1.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. II: 1349–1351/1971–1972 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). p. 259.
- 2.
Shahkulu’s real name was Karabiyikolu. He became the religious leader of the Anatolian Shia after his father, Baba Khalife Hasan, who had a close relation with Sheikh Heydar, Shah Ismail’s father.
- 3.
Sultan Selim I killed more than 40,000 Shia in the Anatolia. See Bitlisi, Idris, Hasht Behesht [Eight Paradises].
- 4.
London 1305 to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2 August 1963.
- 5.
Baghdad A-424 to U.S. Department of State, enclosure: “Kurds - Iraq,” no date (NARA/RG59/CFPF/1964–66/Box2339/POL 13-3–Ethnic Minorities), p. 2.
- 6.
White House, Memorandum, Kissinger to the President, “Progress Report on the Kurdish Support Operations,” October 5, 1972 (FRUS/1969–76/E-4/doc.325), pp. 1–103.
- 7.
SAVAK Documents, 2/490, 8 June 1964.
- 8.
SAVAK Documents, 2/453, 12 January 1964.
- 9.
SAVAK Documents, h/5/3102, 20 September 1965.
- 10.
SAVAK Documents, 13/2933, 25 June 1963.
- 11.
SAVAK Documents, 42/89.
- 12.
Tehran A-1044 to State, “Iran-Iraq Relations,” January 20, 1966 (FRUS/1964–68/XXI/doc.179).
- 13.
White House, Memorandum, Saunders to Bundy, April 2, 1963 (JKF/NSF/RKF/Box426/Iraq-1961-63-White House Memoranda, p. 1.
- 14.
Interview with Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Baltimour, 24 February 2017.
- 15.
Baghdad 564 to the U.S. Department of State, August 29, 1974, NSA, PCFMESA, Box 14, GRFL.
- 16.
Tehran 136 to the U.S. Department of State, August 2, 1962 (NARA/RG59/R2/787.00/8–162), pp. 1–2.
- 17.
Intelligence note prepared in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, November 18, 1974, FRUS 1969–1976, XXVII, 267, Tab B.
- 18.
Interview with Major General Mansour Qadar, Oral History, Foundations for Iranian History.
- 19.
Cologne to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No number, no date.
- 20.
Tehran A-607 to the U.S. Department of State, “The Iran-Iraq Crisis of December/January: An Analysis,” March 5, 1966 (NARA/RG59/CFPF/1964–66/Box2339/POL 13-3–Ethnic Minorities), p. 3.
- 21.
Helms to Kissinger , May 21, 1974, CIA-Helms.
- 22.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No number, no date.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 1971.
- 25.
Borba (Yugoslavia), November 1967.
- 26.
Parsi, Trita, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007) p. 291. For more discussion, see Doran, Charles. The Politics of Assimilation: Hegemony and Its Aftermath (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971).
- 27.
Pahlavi, Mohammad Rezai, Answer to History (New York: Stein and Day, 1980) p. 142.
- 28.
In reality, Iran surprisingly supported, yet indirectly, Cairo and Damascus. While Iran did not join the Arab oil embargo against Israel, the Shah delivered a large shipment of crude oil after Sadat’s personal call to the Shah in the first days of the war. Iran also “extended medical aid to the Arabs and provided Saudi Arabia with Iranian pilots and airplanes to help resolve logistical problems. Iranian planes brought a Saudi battalion to the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. There, it picked up wounded Syrian soldiers and brought them to Tehran for treatment.” Iran also “prevented Jewish Australian volunteers for the Israeli army from reaching Israel via Tehran.” On top of that, Tehran helped the war. See Beirut 3432 to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 January 1975. Earlier before, it seemed Iran had declared an ultimatum to Israel not to interfere in Jordan domestic politics through the U.S. embassy. With Iran’s Air Force’s total readiness, Prime Minister Golda Meir withdrew from General Moshe Dayan’s threat to cross the Jordan River and promised not to intervene in Jordan. See Istanbul 790 to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 July 1971.
- 29.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. II: 1349–1351/1971–1972 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). p. 348.
- 30.
Parsi, Trita, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007) p. 55.
- 31.
Memcon, April 13, 1962, FRUS 1961–1963, XVII, 247; Tehran 1044 to State, January 20, 1966, FRUS 1964–1968, XXI, 179.
- 32.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No Number.
- 33.
Barzani wrote this letter for the fifth annual meeting of the pan-Iranist party. Khak-o-Khoon. No. 246. 9 July 1967; Hakemiyyat-e Mellat (Nation’s Sovereignty), No. 96–97.
- 34.
SAVAK Documents, 215/36967-m/6/8609, 22 February 1965.
- 35.
Bachir Gemayel was a senior member of the Phalange Party and then-supreme commander of the Lebanese Force militia in the Second Civil War 1975–90. Interview with Major General Mansour Qadar, Oral History, Foundations for Iranian History.
- 36.
Interview with a Man Who was with the Shah in [His] Last 6 Months [Reign]: Ehsan Naraghi. Khabaronline. 3 February 2011. See: https://www.khabaronline.ir/detail/127757/culture/History.
- 37.
SAVAK Documents, No. 213/5701, 29 March 1973.
- 38.
Alam, Asadollah, The Shah and I, ed. Alinaghi Alikhani (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), p. 152.
- 39.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. III: 1352/1973 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). p. 328.
- 40.
Parsi, Trita, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007) p. 80.
- 41.
Interview with Major General Mansour Qadar, Oral History, Foundations for Iranian History.
- 42.
Beirut 4264 to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 March 1975.
- 43.
Alpher, Joseph. “Israel and the Iraq-Iran War,” in The Iraq-Iran War: Impact and Implications, Efraim Karsh (New York: St. Martin’s, 1989), p. 157.
- 44.
The implication of the Iran-Iraq Agreement—DCI/NIO 1039–75, 1 May 1975.
- 45.
Mesbahi , Mohiaddin, “Free and Confined: Iran and the International System,” Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs, Vol. II, No. 5, Spring 2011, pp. 9–34.
- 46.
Sobhani, Sohrab, The Pragmatic Entente: Israeli-Iranian Relations, 1948–1988 (New York: Praeger, 1989), p. 128.
- 47.
Parsi, Trita, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 25.
- 48.
Freedman, Lawrence, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, Palgrave Macmillan, Third Edition, 2003. p. 344.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
Alam , Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. III: 1352/1973 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). pp. 249–50. Iran’s lack of natural ally was also felt by several Pahlavi officials. Ambassador Qadar confessed,
“Unfortunately, I should confirm that the Americans never saw Iran in a good way, even in the zenith of their relations with Tehran … An American officer once told me in Tehran that ‘the moment we find a successor for the Shah, we change the regime.’ The British were more mysterious. The Arab regimes’ positions were not clear. One group, led by Nasser , the Baath [regime of Iraq], or Gaddafi , was completely against Iran. The second group, like Saudi Arabia, was not apparently against us but they were jealous and had a hatred feeling toward us. I was in Jordan for years. Although King Hussein apparently respected Iran, Crown Prince Hassan implicitly disrespected Iranians. The Arab regimes, in general, were not good with us. The Arabs are ‘in essence’ not good with us. The history shows the fact.”
Interview with Major General Mansour Qadar, Oral History, Foundations for Iranian History.
- 51.
Helms to Kissinger , August 25, 1973, CIA-Helms.
- 52.
NSC, Memorandum, Saunders to Kissinger, “Supporting the Kurdish Rebellion,” March 27, 1972 (FRUS/1964–68/XXI/doc.301), p. 1; Saunders to Haig, March 27, 1972, FRUS 1969–1976, E-4, 301.
- 53.
Scowcraft to Helms, March 26, 1974, FRUS 1969–1976, XXVII, 244.
- 54.
Memorandum from Kissinger for the President’s File, undated, EBB 265, NSA-GWU.
- 55.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. II: 1349–1351/1971–1972 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). p. 259.
- 56.
Interview with Mohiaddin Mesbahi, 21 March 2018.
- 57.
Buzan, Barry and Ole Waver. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security, Cambridge University Press, 4 Dec 2003. p. 4.
- 58.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. III: 1352/1973 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1995). p. 328.
- 59.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. I: 1347–1348/1968–1969 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 1993). p. 193.
- 60.
Kissinger , Henry. Years of Renewal (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999). pp. 594–596.
- 61.
Kaplan, Robert D. “The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate,” Random House; First Edition, September 11, 2012, p. 158.
- 62.
“Memorandum of Conversation,” 13 Apr. 1962. FRUS 1961–1963 XVII, p. 607.
- 63.
Ibid.
- 64.
- 65.
Memorandum of Conversation, May 15, 1975. (FRUS 1969–1974, XXVII, p. 377).
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Mesbahi, Mohiaddin, ‘Free and Confined: Iran and the International System’, Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs, Vol. II, No. 5, Spring 2011, pp. 9–34.
- 68.
Hegel, George Wilhelm Fredrich, The Philosophy of History, New York, 1956.
- 69.
Kaplan , Robert D. “The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate,” Random House; First Edition, September 11, 2012, p. 158.
- 70.
(Interview with Mohiaddin Mesbahi, 21 March 2018.)
- 71.
Axworthy, Michael, A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind (New York: Basic Books, 2008), p. 3.
- 72.
Foroughi, Mohammad-Ali. Siasat-nameh Zoka-ol-Molk: Maghaleh-ha, Name-ha, va Sokhanrani-haye Sisai-e Mohammad-Ali Foroughi, Edited by Iraj Afshar and Hormoz Homayounpour. 1390. pp. 120–133.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Alam, Assadollah. Yad’dashtha-ye Alam: Virayesh va Muqaddamah az Alinaqi Alikhani [The Alam Diaries: Edited by Alinaqi Alikhani], Vol. IV: 1353/1974 (Bethesda, MD: Iranbook, 2000). p. 347.
- 75.
- 76.
Did Dar Shab [Night-vision], 3 March 2016.
- 77.
Shaery-Eisenlohr, Roschanack. Shi’its Lebanon: Transnational Religion and the Making of National Identities (Columbia University Press. Retrieved 2 July 2016).
- 78.
Goftegoo ba Seyyed Hssan Nasrollah darbare-e Emam Musa Sadr (Interview with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about Imam Musa Sadr, Asr-e Iran, See: http://asreiran.mihanblog.com/post/73).
- 79.
In October 1975, the MEK experienced an ideological split between its Marxist and Islamist members. While the remaining primary members of MEK, including Masoud Rajavi , were imprisoned, some of the early members of MEK, like Bahram Aram, Torab Hghshenas, Taghi Sharam, Alireza Sepasi Ashtiani, Rahman (Vahid) Afrakhteh, Foad Rohani, Hasan Aladpoush, and Mahboobeh Mottahedin, formed a new Marxist organization, later known as Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class or simply Peykar. They declared this ideological split in a book entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, arguing that “that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy.” Most of the Iranian clerical revolutionaries, including Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, felt deep sympathy with the Islamist Mojahedin . They were frustrated with this split. This event had a huge ramification on the power struggle and then the bloody Civil War after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
- 80.
Sadr maintained strong family relations with political leaders in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq. Sadegh Tabatabaie, Sadr’s nephew, became the first spokesman of the revolutionary government. Ahmad Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini’s second son, married Fatemeh Soltani Tabatabaie, Seyyed Musa’s niece. Yaser Khomeini, Ahmad’s second son, also married Houra Sadr, Seyyed Mohammad Sadr’s daughter. Seyyed Mohammad, Seyyed Reza’s son and Musa Sadr’s nephew, is a recent member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council of the System. Former President Mohammad Khatami’s wife, Zohreh Sadeghi, is Sadr’s niece. Sadreddin Sadr, Musa Sadr’s son, was also married to Ayatollah Khomeini’s granddaughter. In Iraq, Seyyed Musa’s cousin, Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Sadr was a major political leader of the Shia. His nephew and son-in-law, Muqtada al-Sadr, Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr’s son, is the leader of the Sadrist Movement in Iraq. In the after math of his mystic disappearance, Sadr’s family has been a prestigious semi-royal family within the larger Shia community.
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Reisinezhad, A. (2019). Conclusion: Iran’s Non-State Foreign Policy and the Shah’s Legacy. In: The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89947-3_9
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