Extracts from chapter 10, 'In the Name of God'
Many Iranians are suspicious of the intentions of foreign governments. At the top of the list are America, Israel and Britain.
The UK's long history of meddling in Iran's affairs.
Iranians learn about British imperialism at school. Iran's dysfunctional relationship with the Western world is rooted in the interventions of Britain and America. As always with powerful nations, their actions were designed to protect and promote their own interests.
Britain took control of the waters of the Gulf between Arabia and Iran in the 1820s to stop pirates attacking shipping on the route to India. The discovery of oil in southern Iran in 1908 changed everything, putting the Middle East front and centre in the minds of the leaders of the great powers, where it has stayed ever since. ... oil was a strategic resource as important as steel or coal had been in the 19th century, much too precious to be left to the people who lived on top of it.
Churchill regarded Britain's near monopoly of Iranian oil as one of his greatest achievements. The deal D'arcy had made in 1901 netted him another fortune as well as providing bundles of money for Britain's exchequer and cheap oil for the Royal Navy. It was a disaster for Iran, and not just financially; Britain's outsize influence distorted Iranian politics for decades.
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, paid more in taxes to the UK government than it paid in royalties to Iran. ... Iranians were not trusted to do the company's big jobs. ... Senior Europeans lived in re-creations of English suburbia on the coasts of the Gulf ... while workers had terraced houses with high walls and tiny courtyards. The worst place was a shanty town known as 'Paper City' (officially Abadan) which was without electricity or running water and was a haven for rats.
The Iranian oil industry created Iran's first industrial working class. In the winter of 1978-79, Abadan was one of the cities that rose against the Shah.
In 1941, the British and Soviets invaded and removed Reza Shah - they suspected he was a Nazi sympathiser - replacing him with his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The young shah was not invited to the dinner or the conference.
Britain's domination of Iranian oil was an obvious target for Iranians fed up with meddling foreigners making fortunes at their expense ... Losing control of Iranian oil would kick away another leg of Britain's rickety pretensions to world power.
Despite their fierce disagreements
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