Britain has bullied Iran for centuries

Britain's imperial designs on Iran go back at least to the Great Game with Russia over control of trade routes through central Asia in the 19th century. Indeed, Iran's southern and eastern boundaries were set by the British during the Anglo-Persian War (1856-7). By the end of the century, Britain occupied a host of cities in southern Iran and the country needed Anglo-Russian approval of its government ministers.

British mischief continued into the 20th century. In 1921, a coup, aided by Britain, put Reza Shah Pahlavi on the throne. However relations with Reza Shah became strained when he cancelled the concession that gave the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company the exclusive right to sell Iranian oil. Shah Pahlavi was then deposed when Britain and Russian invaded Iran in1941 to secure the oilfields. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was placed on the throne. After the war and British withdrawal, the dispute over control of Iran's oil persisted, and in 1952 Iranians nationalized their oil under the leadership of democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. A year later, the British and Americans supported a coup overthrowing Mosaddegh and installing the Shah as absolute leader. The U.S. then took over from Britain as Iran's major imperialist bully.

Britain aroused some bad memories for Iran with its seizure of the supertanker Grace 1 off Gibraltar earlier this month. It claimed the tanker was heading for Syria and it was acting in response to EU sanctions against shipping oil to that tortured country. The justification was a bit thin considering that Iran is not a member of the EU and the EU, unlike the US, doesn’t impose its sanctions on others. A more likely explanation is that Britain was acting in response to pressure from the US, or perhaps more precisely, from US National Security Adviser John Bolton.

The world has changed, however. Britain is no longer lord of the seas and Iran is no longer a supine third world country. Iran has, therefor, retaliated by heisting a British tanker, using military tactics similar to that of the British. Tit for tat. If nothing else, this illustrates why Iran feels that it needs military muscle to deal with the Anglos. And why Britain might want to reconsider being the American's boy.