Iran-United Kingdom relations
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| ██ United Kingdom | ██ Iran |
The United Kingdom and Persia (pre-1935 Iran) have had relations since the late Ilkhanate period when King Edward I of England sent Geoffrey de Langley to the Ilkhanid court to seek an alliance.[1]
Since then, mutual relations have often been turbulent at times and better at others.
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[edit] History of Irano-British relations
[edit] Safavid era
It was Anthony Jenkinson of the Muscovy Company who first visited the Safavid court in the mid 16th century. In 1597, as Abbas I of Safavid sought to strengthen his dominance in eastern Khorasan against rebellious Uzbeks, he received Robert Shirley, Anthony Shirley, and a group of 26 British envoys in Qazvin. The British delegation sought to convert Persia into a British ally against the Ottoman threat. Shah Abbas warmly received the delegation and took them as his guests with him to Isfahan, his new capital.
Soon, the Shirley brothers were appointed by the Shah to organize the royal cavalry and train the army. Many events followed, including the debut of the British East India Company into Persia, and establishment of trade routes for silk though Jask in the Strait of Hormuz in 1616. It was from here where the likes of Sir John Malcolm later gained influence into the Qajarid throne.
[edit] Qajari era
Irano-British relations picked up momentum as a weakened Safavid empire eventually gave way to the Qajarid dynasty, which was quickly absorbed into domestic turmoil and rivalry, while competing colonial powers rapidly sought a stable foothold in the region. While the Portuguese, British, and Dutch, competed for the south and southeast of Persia in the Persian Gulf, Imperial Russia was largely left unchallenged in the north as it plunged southward to establish dominance in Persia's northern territories.
Plagued with internal politics and incompetency, the Qajarid government found itself incapable of rising to the numerous complex foreign political challenges at the doorsteps of Persia.
During the monarchy of Fath Ali Shah, Sir John Malcolm, Sir Harford Jones-Brydges, Allen Lindsay, Henry Eldred Curwen Pottinger, Charles Christie, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Harold Nicolson, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir John McNeill, Edmund Ironside, and James Morrier were some of the British elite closely involved with Persian politics. Allen Lindsay was even appointed as a general in Abbas Mirza's army.
A weakened and bankrupted royal court under Fath Ali Shah was forced to sign the notorious Gulistan Treaty in 1813, followed by a second Turkmanchai treaty after efforts by Abbas Mirza failed to secure Persia's northern front against Imperial Russia. The treaties were prepared by the notorious Sir Gore Ouseley with the aid of the British Foreign Office in London. Sir Gore Ouseley was the younger brother of the British orientalist William Ouseley, who served as secretary to the British ambassador in Persia.
In fact, Iran's current southern and eastern boundaries were determined by no other than the British, after deafeating Nasereddin Shah in Herat in 1857. The British government assigned Frederic John Goldsmid of the Indo-European Telegraph Department to determine the borders between Persia and India during the 1860s.[2]
In 1872, the Shah signed an agreement with Baron Julius de Reuter, which George Nathaniel Curzon (who was one of the greatest statemen of his day) called:
- "The most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that have ever been dreamed of..."[3]
The Reuter Concession was immedialtey denounced by all ranks of businessmen, clergy, and nationalists of Persia. And the concession was quickly forced into cancellation.
Similarly, the "Tobacco fatwa", decreed by Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi was an incident which raised popular resentment against the British presence in Pertsia in lieu of a diplomatically decapitated and apathetic Qajar throne. Concessions such as this and the 70 year contract of Persian railways to be operated by British businessmen such as Baron de Reuter became increasingly visible. The visibility became particularly pronounced after the discovery of oil in Masjed Soleiman in 1909 and the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the "D'Arcy Concession".
By the end of the 19th century, Britain's dominance became so pronounced that Khuzestan, Bushehr, and a host of other cities in southern Persia were occupied by Great Britain, and the central government in Tehran was left with no power to even select its own ministers without the approval of the Anglo-Russian consulates. Morgan Shuster, for example, had to resign under tremendous British and Russian pressure on the royal court. Shuster's book "The Strangling of Persia" is a recount of the details of these events, a harsh criticism of Britain and Imperial Russia.
[edit] Pahlavi era
One result of the public outcry against the inability of the Persian throne to maintain its political and economic independence against Great Britain and Imperial Russia in the face of events such as the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 and "the 1919 treaty" was the Persian Constitutional Revolution which eventually resulted in the fall of the Qajar dynasty.
The great tremor of the Persian political landscape occurred when the involvement of General Edmund Ironside eventually led to the rise of Reza Pahlavi in the 1920s. The popular view that the British were involved in the 1921 coup was noted as early as March 1921 by the American embassy and relayed to the Iran desk at the Foreign Office [4] A British Embassy report from 1932 concedes that the British put Reza Shah "on the throne". For sources on this matter see [5]
After his establishing of power and strengthening of the central government, Reza Khan put an end to the autonomous activities of the British backed Sheikh Khazal in the south. London withdrew its support of Khaz'al in favor of Reza Pahlavi. He was however removed just as quickly from power during the invasion of Iran by Russia and Britain in WW2.
The end of World War II brought the start of American dominance in Iran's political arena, and with an anti-Soviet Cold War brewing, the United States quickly moved to convert Iran into an anti-communist block, thus considerably diminishing Britain's influence on Iran for years to come. Operation Ajax and the fall of Prime Minister Mosaddegh was perhaps the last of the large British involvements in Iranian politics in the Pahlavi era.
[edit] The Islamic Republic
After the Revolution of Iran in 1979, Britain suspended all diplomatic relations with Iran. Britain did not have an embassy until it was reopened in 1988.
During the Iran-Iraq war, the British supplied Saddam Hussein with military technology and hardware. The infamous supergun of Project Babylon is a prime example that comes to mind in this regard. All of the required metal tubes for the barrels were purchased from firms in the United Kingdom. The Arms-to-Iraq scandal is thought to have been an element in John Major's defeat by Tony Blair.
A year after the re-establishment of the British embassy in Tehran, Ayatollah Khomeini issued the infamous Rushdie fatwa, ordering Muslims across the world to kill British author Salman Rushdie. Diplomatic ties with London were broken off only to be resumed at a charge d'affaires level in 1990.
Relations normalised in 1998 during President Mohammad Khatami's reformist administration, and Jack Straw became the first high ranking British politician to visit Tehran in 2001 since the revolution.
Relations suffered a setback in 2002 when David Reddaway was rejected by Tehran as London's ambassador, on charges of being a spy, and further deteriorated when Iran arrested eight British sailors after their vessel apparently strayed into Iranian waters near the border with Iraq. They were released later.
[edit] Current relations
The Herald Tribune on Jan 22, 2006 reported a rise in British exports to Iran from £296 million in 2000 to £443.8 million in 2004. A spokesperson for UK Trade and Investment was quoted saying that "Iran has become more attractive because it now pursues a more liberal economic policy".[6]
However, the rigidity of Tehran-London ties remains to be seen as Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has put forth a hardline government in power, in line with the revolutionary ideals of Ayatollah Khomeini .
The confrontation between the United States-European Union pact on one side and Iran on the other over Iran's nuclear program also continues to develop, remaining a serious obstacle in the improvement of Tehran-London ties.
A confidential letter by UK diplomat John Sawers to French, German and US diplomats, dated March 16, 2006, twice referred to the intention to have the United Nations Security Council refer to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter in order to put pressure on Iran. Chapter VII describes the Security Council's power to authorize economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions, as well as the use of military force, to resolve disputes.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that a secret, high-level meeting would take place on April 3, 2006 between the UK government and military chiefs regarding plans to attack Iran.[7] The Telegraph cited "a senior Foreign Office source" saying that "The belief in some areas of Whitehall is that an attack is now all but inevitable. There will be no invasion of Iran but the nuclear sites will be destroyed." The BBC reported a denial that the meeting would take place, but no denial of the alleged themes of the meeting, by the UK Ministry of Defence, and that "there is well sourced and persistent speculation that American covert activities aimed at Iran are already underway"[8].
[edit] Further reading
- Kazemzadeh Firuz, Russia and Britain in Persia 1864-1914, A study in Imperialism, 1968, Yale University Press.
- Morgan Shuster, The Strangling of Persia: Story of the European Diplomacy and Oriental Intrigue That Resulted in the Denationalization of Twelve Million Mohammedans. ISBN 0-934211-06-X
- Ingram, Edward. Britain’s Persian Connection 1798-1828: Prelude to the Great Game in Asia. 1993. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820243-1
- Bonakdarian, Mansour. BRITAIN AND THE IRANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION 1906-1911. Syracuse University Press in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation. 2006. ISBN 0-8156-3042-5
[edit] References
- ^ Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave 2005 ISBN 1-4039-6276-6, p.25
- ^ Frederic John Glodsmid's Eastern Persia: An account of the journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission. 1870-1871-1872. London. Macmillan and Co. 1876.
- ^ George Nathaniel Curzon. Persia and the Persian question. Vol.I London. Frank Cass and Co. Ltd. 1966. p.480
- ^ Zirinsky M.P. Imperial Power and dictatorship: Britain and the rise of Reza Shah 1921-1926. International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 24, 1992. p.646
- ^ Sources:
- FO 371 16077 E2844 dated 8 June 1932.
- The Memoirs of Anthony Eden are also explicit about Britain's role in putting Reza Khan in power.
- Ansari, Ali M. Modern Iran since 1921. Longman. 2003 ISBN 0-582-35685-7 p.26-31
- ^ Hint of Iran sanctions tugs at trade ties, Judy Dempsey, January 22, 2006, International Herald Tribune
- ^ Government in secret talks about strike against Iran, Sean Rayment, Sunday Telegraph, April 2, 2006
- ^ MoD denies Iran military meeting, BBC, April 2, 2006
[edit] See also
- Foreign relations of Iran
- Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
- Iran-China relations
- Iran-US relations
- Iran-Russia relations
- Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
- Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
- Imperial Bank of Persia, a British owned bank established in 1889.
