Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel : See, there are so many countries in the Middle East, but you must be haring the name of Iran every day that Iran has given weapons to Hezbollah, Hamas and sometimes Houthis there is also talk of Iran’s support in the attack that was carried out by Hamas in Israel, so what is the benefit of Iran which is going against the whole world and supporting such groups.
Whereas Saudi Arabia and Iran are both Muslim countries, then what is the point that both became enemies of each other. US and Iran had a very good friendship at one time, then what incident happened that Iran and US became each other’s sworn enemies? Just a few days ago, US attacked Iran’s post.
Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel
Table of Contents
By imposing sanctions on Iran it brought down the entire economy of Iran. Even after that Iran has put everything at stake and is standing against the US, so what is the reason behind all these things? What is the reason behind this whole power struggle going on in Middle East?
The history of muslim belief system
Well, before discussing all these things, there are one or two things to be discussed first. Let’s do that. See, after the death of Hazrat Prophet Mohammad there was a conflict in the Muslim community regarding who would become the new Caliph. One group wanted Hazrat Prophet Mohammad’s friend Hazrat Abu Bakr to become the Caliph and the other group wanted Hazrat Prophet Mohammad’s son-in-law Hazrat Ali to become the Caliph.
Now the Muslim community was divided into two groups regarding this. Those who considered Hazrat Abu Abu Bakr as Caliph became Sunni Muslims and those who considered Hazrat Ali as Caliph became Shia Muslims and there are many other things too but this is the main difference. Now if you see the map of the whole world, then these light green countries including India have Sunni Muslim majority and the dark green countries like Iran, Iraq and Yemen have Shia Muslim majority here, so what is meant to say is this that Shia Muslims
are comparatively very less than Sunni Muslims.
Majoritarion approach muslims
In the total Muslim population of the whole world, 87 to 90% are Sunni Muslims and about 7 to 10% are Shia Muslims and there is one more thing in this, like in the world the one who follows the religion of Islam is called a Muslim but it is not the case that the Muslims of India, Pakistan and the Arab, Muslims of Iran would be same.
There is a lot of cultural difference among them like, Iran is a country of the Middle East and the population here is mostly of Shia Muslims, but the culture of Shia Muslims of Iran is completely different from that of Sunni Muslims of Arab. Iran considers itself culturally different from Arabs. Persian is spoken in Iran.
Iran is in Middle East but not a member of the Arab League. Arab countries are those where Arabic is spoken. The Muslims there are called Arab Muslims. Arabs are the majority in the entire Middle East. Now there is no specific officially defined map of the Middle East, but generally out of 17 Middle East countries there’re 13 Arab countries, Iran is not among these 13. Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel
The Sunni Muslim population of Arab dominates the entire Middle East. They are also more in number. Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims have always been in conflict. Due to this in the Middle East, be it the Iran-Saudi proxy conflict, Iran civil war, Syria civil war, Bahrain Uprising or ISI’s Shia persecution in 2014. You will see the relevance of this thing everywhere in the Middle East.
In fact, without understanding this thing, it is very difficult to understand the geography of the Middle East. Now look from India towards the West, here is the Middle East and here in between the countries with Arab Sunni Muslim majority, this is Iran and earlier it was called Persia. Due to its geopolitical location and resources, Iran has always been in the eye of the super powers.
Advantages of maintaining control in iran
There are many advantages in maintaining control inside Iran and one can control throughout the region. One border of Iran is with South Asia, the other border is with Arab. Below it is the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, from where the world’s trade takes place.
This is the Strait of Hormuz, it is here, if it is blocked then you can stop the 20% flow of oil in the world in a very short time. Talking about resources, there are reserves of oil and natural gas here, but some things happened inside Iran due to which today as of today, the 28% population of Iran is in poverty and the population at 40% is going to go into poverty in the next 2 years.
See, all the things I am telling you in the beginning: Shia Sunni Differences, Cultural Differences, Geo Politics, Resources, all these have meanings which will be sensed in future and all these things which have been told will be found in the end. So see, it was the year 1800 and Iran was ruled by the Qajar dynasty, whose king was Fath Ali Shah Qajar.
Now generally, king of any country rules the entire country, he takes control. But there was a slightly different system in Iran, here the Shia Muslim population was more people were well connected to their Shia Muslim religion and here the scholars of religion who used to spread the message of religion to the people. If they would explain to the people what the laws of religion are, then they would be more popular.
These religious scholars were called Ulama and in this too, the most educated scholars were called Ayatollahs. And these Ulamas in Iran also had political power, so it was not only the king who had control, if the Ulemas said something then the king had to obey. So this system worked at that time in Iran. So at that time Iran, which was called Persia, had a border with British India and Pakistan was not separated at that time. The British were ruling over India.
So Iran had a border with the Britishers. And the other border was with Russia. Now even at that time, due to the geopolitical importance of Iran and the resources, the British and the Russians were keeping an eye on it. Iran was stuck between the two super powers.
1804 attack
Now after this comes the date of May 1804 and Russia, seeing the opportunity, attacks Iran and after defeating Iran, forcibly makes a treaty, Treaty of Gulistan. Now you can also say that the whole of Iran should be captured. Why was the treaty being made? See, Iran also had a border with the British and the British and Russia did not want to fight a battle over Iran.
Both were powerful, so both wanted to eat together and eat. I will tell you further how they ate. In this treaty, Russia took control of the Caspian Sea from Iran and took the military rights within Iran, and the Russian traders took the rights to trade on the Iranian resources. Now after some time, what happens is that Tsar Alexander of Russia dies, then King Fath Ali of Iran tries to attack Russia, now Russia will be a little weak, so the King of Iran attacks him, now rather than winning, Iran loses on the contrary and Russia again gets a treaty signed like Treaty of Turkmenchay. In this treaty, first of all
because of the attack by Iran, a fine of 20 million rubles is imposed on Iran and all the Naval rights of Iran were also taken by Russia. This is the original copy of that treaty. Now see, there is one more thing in this that if any international incident happens between countries, then it also affects the market.
So coming back to the topic. now Russia got what it wanted. Now it was the turn of the Britishers. It was the time was October 1834, Fath Ali Shah had died. Mohammad Shah became the king and after his death, on 5th of September 1848, his son Nasir Aldin Shah became the king of Iran. He was a little aggressive. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
After a few years of becoming the king around 1856, there was an area named Heret which King Nasser considered to be a part of Iran. And he attacked it to take it inside Iran and here the Britishers got an opportunity and the Britishers, seeing the opportunity, attacked back. First they send Iran back and after that the Britishers also get the Treaty of Paris signed.
The dirty game
The same things that Russia got in the North, the Britishers got the same things in the South East area of Iran, so by doing this treaty etc. Russia and the Britishers had divided Iran in their own way and were taking their respective shares and both did not have to fight. Now when all these things were happening, then what happened to those who were local traders of Iran they were called Baazari at that time and they had started incurring huge losses on the Iranian market where earlier they used to trade alone now the competition from the British and Russian traders had increased, due to which the Iranian traders suffered huge loss.
The entire textile industry of Iran was completely taken out of the hands of the traders and the matter does not stop here. In the year 1890, the tobacco industry of Iran was also given to the Britishers by King Nasser. now the textile industry was tolerated, but tobacco was consumed a lot in Iran. All the traders, from small to big, used it to run their houses. Tobacco was consumed a lot in Iran.
Internally, this was a huge setback for the general public. So, protests started at various places in Iran regarding this and people started saying that the king has been sold to the foreigners and matter increases so uch that what I had told you in the beginning that the Muslim Ulemas, who were religious scholars, had to come in between. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
With the arrival of the Ulemas, the pressure on the king increases a lot. In the year 1892, king is pressurized a lot. He understands everything & cancels the treaty. Now due to this incident, what happens after this was that people started taking the king lightly and the stature of the Ulemas had increased a lot in Iran and after 4 years in 1896, Mirza Reza Kermani named man murderdd king Nasser.
Murderer of king Nasser
This is the original pic of Mirza, after this murder. Now after his death, on the same day, first of May 1896, Nasser’s son – Mozaffar-ad-Din he was made king and he was also stuck between the Russians and the Britishers. He was not able to do much. Now, in the same year when Mozaffar became the king, there was a man from UK named William D. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
Arcy used to do oil mining all over the world, especially in Australia, and he stumbles on a report in his hand in which it was said that there is a huge possibility of oil extraction inside Iran and when this report comes to D. Arcy, then D taking. Arcy taking the advantage of this opportunity, he holds a meeting with King Muzaffar of Iran and gets him ready to sign an agreement on 16th of April 1901. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
In this agreement, it was said that for the coming 60 years, William D. Arcy will search for oil inside Iran and after finding it, later, if oil is found then it has to be extracted using technology and it has to be traded and sold in the market and profit is to be made and all these things have to be done in the same area which was the South Zone of the British.
Oil extraction agreement
It was also mentioned in this agreement that all the profit made by extracting oil will have to be given to Iran at 16% and an annual amount was also fixed that will have to be given to Iran. Now from here, William D. Arcy, which had the full support of the Britishers, forms a company with the Government of Iran and the name of this company was Anglo Persian Oil Company and this company later on, because of this company, many problems were created for Iran. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
So now what happens is that oil is found, initially money is spent in finding oil and It takes a lot of time. William D. Arcy had invested all his money and when he ran out of money, the Britishers Government gave him money and after giving the money, they used to buy the shares of this company. Most of the shares of this company had come to the Britishers Government and later the name of this company was also changed.
It became Britishers Petroleum, now this company was formed, oil was also being searched but oil was not found till now in Iran. After this comes the year 1908 and in this year a huge jackpot is hit and a huge oil field is discovered. Now the jackpot was hit in Iran but its profit was taken up by Britishers. After this, the Britishers start extracting all the oil and started selling it & Iran gets 16% and the fixed amount annually. Now look, the agreement regarding it was done earlier by Iran. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
But just think about it, if there is such a jackpot near your house and beyond which it is your right and you later come to know that some white person will come and take it, so the people of Iran also got very angry reagrding it that such a big jackpot has been hit which is ours but even after that we will not be able to take profit from it and from here the problems start inside Iran whose impact still falls on Iran.
Civilians point of view
After this entire incident, the Iranian people inside Iran started talking that the king has been sold, he is of no use and in parallel, the talk of creating a separate system started, which in the beginning I told you about Ulema, those who were religious scholars, what did they did was with the support of the people, they allowed the monarchy that was running in Iran to continue as it is. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
In parallel to it, they ran an Islamic Constitution in which voting, elections and all other things would happen, meaning that the king would continue to rule, but Ulema will also have its say and it was given the name Majlis. Like in England, there is a constitutional monarchy where there is a queen and a king, but the whole system like Parliament etc. runs separately.
A similar system was also implemented in Iran Which means that the king will rule but the laws, and other important decisions will be taken by the Majlis, basically religious groups, had got political power inside Iran, they were given different names. Islamic Consultative Assembly was also called Iranian Parliament and it was also called Iranian Majlis.
Now because this Majlis was completely run by religious scholars, according to their own rules, so they also made laws according to the same. Just like the Shia Muslim religion, was declared the official religion of Iran. The king and the Majlis were running Iran together, but what was actually happening was that the Majlis was taking decisions and were acting like the government of Iran. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
And the king was left for name’s sake, now after this comes the date 16th of July 1909, King Muzaffar Aldin dies and his son Mohammad Ali Shah becomes the king and his son was a little different from their father, they were inside Iran. They were completely against the concept of the Majlis. They believed that the king could not do anything.
Rise of ‘majlis’
All the decisions were taken by the Majlis by voting and making the constitution. The king was only in name. Now what would Mohammad Ali Shah does is Mohammed Ali Shah takes the help of the army and attacks the leaders of Majlis etc. and puts them in jail etc. Now the king, who was there, had closed the Majlis but the Majlis was supported by the people.
A year later in 1909, what did the Majlis did was, they formed their own fighters and attacked the king, attacked his leaders and as soon as everything went out of control, Mohammed Ali, the king, seeing this, runs away to Russia, so at this particular time, no king was governing Iran, the entire Majlis was controlling it, but according to the rules of Iran, this was wrong. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
It was necessary to have a king, so what Majlis did was It makes the king’s 11 year old son, the king and he lives like a puppet. The one who was actually running Iran was the Majlis at that particular time. Now what happens in the meantime that the First World war starts and in the year 1917, many revolutions were taking place inside Russia itself. He was not able to handle his own country, so he leaves Iran and goes back to his own country. But the Britishers, i.e. UK, after getting oil it was not possible for him to leave Iran.
Oil is the new power
Iran’s oil had become a major part of the UK’s economy and all the industries were dependent on this oil, so that is why the Britishers didn’t leave Iran. They used to provide financial help from time to time, give money, help in security etc. but the people of Iran were also not happy with this.
These Britishers were taking the oil and kept the entire profit or maximum profit for themselves. People were not happy at all with this and that is why what the Majlis does is – that it tells the Britishers that we do not want any of your financial help, no one wants your security. Take charge of your country and leave Iran. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
Initially, the British clearly refused that they would not go but then when international pressure comes then the Britishers had to go. They expel all their officials from Iran. But the Britishers were not in a position to suffer such a huge loss, then what happens is – Iran had an army head in its army, Riza Khan Pahlavi.
What do the Britishers do is – They fully support Riza Khan Pahlavi and Riza Khan carries out a coup inside Iran. Raza, the king of Iran, was sent to Europe but Riza Khan knew that the Majlis had the support of the people, so he did not end the Majlis, but what Riza Khan did was to give money to some of the leaders within the Majlis.
He kept some in his support, replaced some with his leaders and killed those who did not agree, then instead of removing the Majlis, he kept the complete control of the Majlis with himself and made the Majlis completely weak and at this particular time as soon as Reza Khan Pahalvi becoomes king of Iran, the Qajar Dynasty ends and the Pahlavi Dynasty starts inside Iran.
The entry of united states
See, I am telling you all these things, now it will relate to the current situation in the future, as US enters. Now, Reza Khan was completely influenced by the Western powers he came forward as a secular and modern leader and completely modernized Iran, like in 1928, men in Iran were asked to dress in European style and wearing of hats was made compulsory. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
Chairs were placed inside mosques. Women were banned from wearing veil and burqa. Women were encouraged to do jobs. Government jobs were opened for them. Girls were allowed inside cafes and cinemas. If you look today, there is a lot of veil, but at that time, women used to live like this. This is a picture of the Iran girls basketball team of that time.
At that time, boys used to wear such clothes, you will understand later that after all these things changed, how did the present purdah system come into existence? Reza Khan was doing all these things but in a selective manner. He implemented modernization and secularis but according to his own calculations and interest, like media and press were censored, trade unions were banned, political parties were suppressed, Majlis was weakened.
The biggest problem with Reza Khan was that on one hand he was doing modernization but on the other hand, he had increased the taxes, now the revenue from taxes was coming to Iran, but the condition of the poor section of the society had become very bad, things had become very expensive for them, so the poor section of the society were not at all happy with Reza Khan. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
Anglo persian oil company
In his time, in 1933, Reza Khan the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which later became Britishers Petroleum had increased Iran’s profit share from 16 per cent to 20 per cent and the money British companies was paying annually also increased, but it did not make any difference to the people of Iran.
The people of Iran wanted complete control over their oil, so all these things keep going on, after this the Second World War starts between UK and Russia i.e. Soviet Union. Union was on one side in the war, then later US also joined the group of UK and Russia, all three were on one side, now Iran was neutral in this entire war, but when big wars happen, these neutral countries play bets on who will win and what was happening in the beginning was that Germany was feeling that Germany would win, so Iran had started its talks with Germany also, (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
it had started entertaining Germany. Reza Khan started talking about trade with Iran and oil extraction inside Iran. Many diplomats from Germany had come and sat inside Iran and UK and Russia i.e. Soviet Union were against Germany, they did not want Germany to go to Iran. If Germany came inside Iran and sat inside, then the advantage that UK and Russia were getting in the war in terms of logistics etc.
Political and economical advantage
supplies would go away and Germany would get a different advantage over these three, UK, US, Russia, which these three did not want, on top of that, due to the start of Iran’s oil discussion with Germany, the Britishers also became very angry. They felt that their oil industry was in danger, so the UK and Russia explained to Iran a lot that Germany should be kicked out from Iran but it was not so easy for Iran to kick out Germany, so actually Iran was stuck between all these super powers, Germany, US, Russia and when things did not work out, UK and Russia (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
attacks Iran. This was a proper attack but UK and Russia said that due to the war going on with Germany, they are forced to do this, they will have to push Germany from Iran otherwise they will have a huge disadvantage in this whole war because their maximum which was the supply of war like food and the weapons etc.
used to go through Iran and if Germany has control over Iran then it will be a big disadvantage for UK and Russia. These people can also lose the war and using this excuse they attacked. US also entered Iran to provide support like weapons, food and other supplies for UK & Russia. At that time US used to transfer supplies by train.
Russia and british
US even landed its aircraft to support Russia and British. Now these attacks done on Iran by Russia and UK causes huge loss to Iran. Inflation in Iran increases 400 times. Unemployment was already there increases and food shortage increases further. Starvation also occurs in many areas of Iran and here the US comes in full support of Iran and whatever was needed, the US used to give it to Iran completely. (Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel)
This was done because the US also had to maintain our control inside Iran. Now after some time, when the war ended, it was decided that UK, US and Russia would go out of Iran, but this did not happen. UK and US had gone out of Iran, but Russia did not go. In fact, Russia creates another problem for Iran. There were some rebellious groups inside Iran, Russia supports them and breaks Iran into pieces.
Azerbaijan and Kurdish Republic are made into separate countries. Look after Second World War the US had become very powerful and the interests of the US were inside Iran, so to make its number, the US went to the UN and also had influence in the UN. After going to the UN, the US says that Russia, which is against Iran. Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel
For more information please read part 2 of Why Iran Is Enemy With US & Israel