OIL and IRAN - Are you aware of the history?

For those who are not familiar with the history or for those who do not have enough time or willingness to research, following is a brief time line of major ‘events’ in Iran starting with oil history and bringing us to date. It's quite an interesting read for those who are unaware.

Spreading 'democracy' for oil, indeed.


1901 – May: William Knox D'Arcy of England was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil


1908: Oil was found by D’Arcy’s company Burmah Oil Company Ltd.


1909: Burmah Oil Company Ltd. created the AnI suckersian Oil Company (APOC) as a subsidiary and D’Arcy was made director


1935: APOC became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). The Iranians opposed the agreements with AIOC and the desire for nationalization became intense leading up to 1951.


1951 – March: Pro-western Prime Minister Ali Razmara of Iran was assassinated and Iranian nationalist Mohammed Mossadeq was elected as prime minister, and Time magazine named Mossadeq “Man of the Year”


1951 – April: Iranian oil industry was nationalized by unanimous vote. Britain objected and appealed to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed. (Britain objected...that cracks me up)


1953: Iranian coup d’etat by CIA and British SIS. In August, Mossadeq was forced from office by the military coup and was replaced by pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi

The Shah, who had left the country briefly to await the outcome of the coup, returned to Iran. He abolished the democratic Constitution and assumed autocratic powers and was fully supported by the US and Britain.


1954: The AIOC became the British Petroleum Company and British control of oil operations in Iran was reestablished.

The Iranian public was so against the move that the gov. was forced to negotiate an international consortium under the nationalized name the National Iranian Oil Company.

British Petro was just one member and held 40% of the shares. 40% went to the five major American companies. 14% went to Royal Dutch Shell. 6% went to Compagnie Française des Pétroles. The consortium agreed to share profits on a 50-50 basis with Iran, but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors.

BP continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown.


1953 – 1979: During the Shah's rule, he was determined to “modernize Iran virtually overnight and at any cost led to cultural shock, alienation of the masses, inflation, corruption, economic bottlenecks, massive urbanization, rising expectations and increasing authoritarianism in dealing with these social, economic and political problems. He used secret, torturous police, the Savak, to control the country. Iranian nationalists condemned his U.S. supported regime and his "westernizing" of Iran.

During rioting in 1963, the Shah cracked down, suppressing his opposition. Among those arrested and exiled was a popular religious nationalist and bitter foe of the United States, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. By the late 1970s, the Shah's opponents, of all political affiliations, united behind Ayatollah Khomeini.”


1979: The Shah was overthrown in 1979 by the Islamic Revolution, which was headed by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Shah left the country and Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran. (Research Iranian or Islamic Revolution for more details).


1979 – April: There was a national referendum with only one question: Islamic Republic, Yes or No. The result is reported as a “landslide victory” for an Islamic Republic (98.2% majority vote). After 2,500 years of monarchy, Iran's government was changed to a theocratic republic, The Islamic Republic of Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini became the “supreme spiritual leader” of Iran and a constitution was created.
[link to www.iranchamber.com]


OIL: The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini confiscated all of BP's assets in Iran without compensation, finally closing BP's 70-year presence in Iran.


1979 – November: The Shah was admitted in the US for medical treatment, which caused anger amongst Iranians thinking that this was an opening move to return the Shah to power (a repeat of 1953). In opposition, Ayatollah Khomeini called for street demonstrations against the US. One of the demonstrations resulted in radical Iranian students seizing the United States Embassy complex in Tehran taking 63 American hostages. Three more U.S. citizens were taken prisoner at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, for a total of 66 hostages. The hostages were held captive for 444 days.

Immediate official American reactions involved halting oil exports from Iran, expelling many Iranians living in the U.S., and freezing Iranian government assets and investments.


1980 – April: President Carter ordered a military rescue mission code-named "Operation Eagle Claw." This mission was a total and complete failure resulting in the deaths of eight U.S. military personnel.


1981 – January: Negotiations between Iran and the U.S. culminated in a deal that released the hostages and the eight billion dollars worth of frozen Iranian assets. Moments after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981, the hostages were allowed to fly out of Iran after 444 days of captivity.


1980-1988: Iran-Iraq war “began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long suppressed Shia majority influenced by Iran's Islamic revolution. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982.

For the next six years Iran was on the offensive. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003.”

The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein and funded Iraq’s efforts against Iran. However, this was also the time of the Iran-Contra Affair whereby it was/is controversially claimed that the US authorized Israel to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Oh, what a tangled web we do weave…which leads me back to our founding fathers’ warning of entangling alliances…


1979 – 2008: Iran has had six elected presidents; Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005. Iran’s oil is still nationalized; however, they do have strategic alliances with players such as China.


2004 - China has signed an agreement to buy more than 110 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran over 25 years, which could be the largest LNG purchase deal in the world, and to develop Iran's Yadavaran oil field. As part of the deal, China is allowed to buy stakes in Iranian oil and gas fields.


2008: Well, it seems the US is again on the verge of another coup for oil and control. The Chinese, however, may have something to say about that.


Sources: All taken from various articles, essays and papers found on the Internet.

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