In many ways, the conflict between Iran and the US and Israel has been decades in the making. Ramtin Arabloi, host of NPR’s podcast “Throughline,” explains how.
Emily Kwong, Host:
In many ways, the conflict between Iran and the US and Israel has been decades in the making.
RAMTIN ARABLOI, BYLINE: Like many of you, we’ve been watching the recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and we’ve been thinking a lot about the origins of this incredibly complex problem.
Kwang: That’s Ramtin Arabloi, host of NPR’s podcast Throughline, a show that looks at history to answer the question – how did we get here? Ramtin was born in Iran and has dug up several key moments in the history of US-Iranian relations on the Throughline podcast. They are with us now to help us understand how the events of the past few decades have shaped the events of the past few hours. Welcome to Ramtin Arabloi, all things considered.
Arabloi: Thanks for having me, Emily.
Kwang: How did we get here?
Arabloui: There are many places where we can start this story.
Kwang: Yes.
Arabloui: But I think the problems with the US and Iran started in 1953, when an early version of the CIA overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh. They had many reasons for doing so, but the main one was that they were trying to prevent Iran from nationalizing its oil on a long-term basis. It was the 1950s. Oil was driving the economic boom around the world and it became very important for the US to keep some form of control over oil there.
Kwang: And they decided to do it through a coup?
Arabloi: They did it through rebellion. What he basically did was get rid of Mossadegh and bring back the Shah. And when the Shah returned, there was no semblance of democracy in Iran. The country essentially devolves into a total dictatorship under his rule. And over the next several decades, there was more and more bitterness toward that authoritarian regime. So you could really argue that the 1953 coup opened a wound in the relationship between Iran and the US that has deteriorated over the decades.
Kwang: How did this uprising become the platform for the Iranian Revolution in 1979?
Arabloi: It is important to know that 1953 remains in the memory of many Iranians, especially those who are politically active. When there was a protest movement against the Shah regime in the late 1970s, people remembered. I think some of the chants used at that time in those protests were mentioned back in 1953.
Kwang: Wow.
ARABLOI: And basically what happened was people showed what the US was doing, basically upholding the shah, who was close to the US at the time – a puppet government that was oppressing everybody in Iran. So when the revolution of 1979 finally happened and the Shah was deposed, a key moment that looked back on the 1953 coup was when students occupied and took over the American embassy and held American hostages for a year. He cited the reason for doing it was that he wanted to prevent another uprising inside the embassy against the revolution that had just taken place.
Kwang: So what do historians say about what the revolution did to Iran?
ARABLOI: So we talked to an author, Stephen Kinzer, who put it really bluntly – for Americans, the hostage crisis is a pivotal moment in this story, but for Iranians, it’s 1953.
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Stephen Kinzer: In the United States, US-Iran relations begin and end with the hostage crisis. That moment is the turning point and the root of everything. From an Iranian perspective, things are very different. Iranian and American perceptions, they are like parallel train tracks that run parallel. They never match.
ARABLOUI: So that’s an open wound that originally manifested itself in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution.
Kwang: So the root of the US-Iran tension is very deep. They go back decades. What about Israel? Remind us, why are Israel and Iran at war at this time?
Arablooi: So if you look at this recent hostility and attack…
Kwang: Yes.
Arabloui: …against Iran and last year’s 12-day war…
Kwang: In June, yes.
Arabloui: Yes, you would be tempted to believe that Iran and Israel have always been at war since the creation of Israel in 1948. But that is not true. Iran and Israel were close allies in the 1960s and 70s, and in fact, Iran was the second Muslim country after Turkey to recognize Israel’s existence.
Kwang: Wow.
ARABLOUI: So the countries actually cooperated deeply, economically, militarily, and as a bridge between the two countries, really, the Iranian Jewish community, a community that has existed for thousands of years.
Kwang: Who are some of the most important figures in the history of Israel-Iran relations?
Arabloui: There was a man named Habib Elghanian. He became an industrial mogul of sorts. He brought plastic manufacturing to Iran in the mid-20th century. He opened Iran’s first high-rise building, known as the Plasco Building, and became very wealthy. He is also, as you know, benevolent. His story basically describes a bridge between two countries. He is Iranian. He lived in Iran, but he visited Israel many times. He had a relationship with the people of Israel. He supported Iranian Jews who moved to Israel. But he never went there. He considered himself an Iranian first, and his story really highlights the fact that Iran and Israel were friends. Their relationship was really positive at that time.
Kwong: So what caused the relationship to go south?
Arabloi: Basically, in the late 1970s, there was a protest movement against the Shah. And a key element of that protest movement was pushed forward by the Shia Islamic clergy in Iran, the clerics who have come to rule the country today.
Kwang: Yes.
ARABLOI: And one of those clerics, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as many people know, is essentially the father of the Islamic Revolution. They did it to say that Iran should not ally with Israel and that Israel is Iran’s natural enemy. In fact, he pointed to the Elghanian family not as a bridge, but rather, as a kind of problem for Iran — because they are too close to Israel.
Kwang: That’s a big change in the relationship…
Arabloi: A very big change.
Kwang: …between Iran and Israel.
ARABLOUI: Yes, what Khomeini is basically signaling is that if he can come to power – which leads to a revolution – the relationship with Israel and Iran is over and they’re going to be enemies immediately. And that’s what happened. In fact, Habib Elghanian was the first civilian killed by the Islamic Republic. The message was sent to the people of Iran that there is no one above those who will be killed by us. This is what the Islamic Republic says, no matter how famous you are, no matter how much money you have, you can be kicked out. And the message to the Iranian Jewish community is, if you want to stay here, you have to be anti-Israel. And what happened was that over the next few years tens of thousands of Iranian Jews walked out of the country…
Kwang: Wow.
Arabloui: …because for them, it became untenable.
Kwang: Ramtin, when you look back on this report of 70 years of history, what do you have in mind about what’s at stake next?
Arabloui: One of the many things that I think is getting lost in all of this is that the Islamic Republic did not come to power anywhere by a fluke. He was ready for this. They are very intelligent. You know, the revolution of 1979 was not inevitable. There were many people competing for power then and because they were really smart, the Islamic Republic took over. They really – they were willing to use force. How far they were willing to go to get that power. And despite the withdrawal, I think it’s really important to know, Supreme Leaders, that this administration is ready for a long fight. If the Islamic Republic can survive this, we realize from our reporting on their past, they have survived many conflicts – maybe not of this size, but many conflicts in the past. He fought an eight-year war with Iraq. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. He survived it. If they can survive this, it’s going to be really hard to dislodge (ph) them from the ruling country in the future.
Kwang: That’s Ramtin Arabloi, host of NPR’s podcast Throughline. His episode, diving into Habib Elghanian’s story, is out Thursday. Thanks for joining us, Ramtin.
Arabloi: Thank you, Emily.
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