Today’s problems with Iran
When the Shah Mohammed Reza of Iran was forced to abdicate the throne and leave the country in 1979, he was dying with secret cancer. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. Even though the Shah had westernized Iran and moved it forward economically ahead of all of the other countries in the Middle East, President Carter was glad to see the change. President Carter considered the Shah to be a cruel dictator and he expected Iran to move into democracy. At this time, Iran was a socialist country with the country owning and controlling everything. The Shah had been the founder of OPEC ( Organization of oil producing countries). It was his suggestion that the production of oil be slowed and the price increased to obtain more money for the Middle East.
An interim government was formed in Iran by Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, but it could not stand against the Shia Muslim leader. By popular demand the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of the country. He was already considered to be the leader of all of the Shia Muslims around the world. Iran became known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. A constitution was written that made the supreme leader of the nation the ruler for life. The Ayatollah Khomeini was named the supreme leader. In an Islamic Republic, the law is Mohammed’s Koran. All legal questions are settle by writings in the Koran. The Ayatollah stated that democracy was the same as prostitution and would not be a part of the nation of Iran. Soon after the Ayatollah took control, he did allow the people to vote on one question. Should the monarchy be abolished in favor of an Islamic government? It passed with 98 percent of the vote. The American press was very happy with the Ayatollah as the leader of Iran. Time Magazine named him Man of the Year.
The Deposed Shah first traveled to Egypt, where he was warmly received. He was later invited to come and live in Morocco. He left Morocco and moved to Paradise Island in the Bahamas. He then moved to a location near Mexico City. Former President Richard Nixon visited him there. He had not disclosed to any of his hosts that he had cancer. One of his earlier cancer doctors visited him in Mexico and determined that he needed immediate treatment. The doctor could admit him to a hospital in Switzerland but the Shah insisted on treatment in the United States. President Carter was determined that the Shah was not coming to the United States. Dr. Kissinger called President Carter and told him that he would not testify about the SALT treaty with Russia if the Shah could not be treated in the United States. The State Department advised President Carter that the Iranians would attack our Embassy in Iran if he came into the country. David Rockefeller told President Carter that he should allow him to come. The Shah had deposited $500 million of Iran’s money in the Chase Manhattan Bank as security for a loan and they were beginning to draw out the money. David Rockefeller speculated that if the embassy was attacked, the money would be frozen in the Chase Bank. President Carter gave in and allowed the Shah to come to Cornell University Hospital in New York under an assumed name.
After the treatment, President Carter was under a lot of pressure to get the Shah out of the country. The President of Panama agreed to take him in Panama. He was not well treated in Panama and Panama was under a lot of pressure to return him to Iran. The Shah contacted President Sadat in Egypt and was welcomed back to Egypt. In Egypt he had an operation to remove his spleen that had enlarged to the size of a football. He died a few days later on Feb. 11, 1979, in Egypt and is buried in Cairo. He was 60 years old when he died.
President Carter had allowed the Shah to come into the United States on Oct. 22, 1978 for treatment. As the State Department had warned the President, on Nov. 4, a group calling themselves Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line attacked the American Embassy in Tehran. They took 52 prisoners and held them for 444 days. They would not release them as long as President Carter was in office. They released them on the day that President Reagan became President.
Saddam Hussein of Iraq thought that Iran would be weak at this time and Iraq attacked Iran. There was an eight year war that ended with the borders essentially where they were at the beginning of the war. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Iranians were killed. The Ayatollah cleared his prisons by having a group of clerics go into the prisons and interview all of the prisoners. Any prisoner that was not determined to be a believing Muslim was put to death.
On June 3, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini passed away at the age of 86 after several years of declining health. He had selected and trained a successor to his position but the successor began to criticize things that the Ayatollah had done and he was dismissed from his position. After the death of the Ayatollah, the Assembly of Experts met on the following day and elected Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader. He was not a relative of the Khomeini family. He had served in a number of positions during the term of the previous supreme leader. The people have a chance to vote for the president that serves under the supreme leader. The supreme leader announces the new president after the people have voted.
In 2009, there were protests in the nation because the people believed that the president that was announced was not the man with the most votes. Ayatollah Khamenei tried to move the country away from socialism by privatizing the industries that the previous supreme leader had taken from the people. He believed that there was no motivation to produce where the business or industry was owned by the government. Both of these supreme leaders stated publicly that they wished to ban nuclear weapons from the nation of Iran. It is thought that the serious effort to obtain nuclear production started with the sixth president of Iran, who was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. President Ahmadinejad was elected in a run-off election in 2005 and served until 2013. He was the mayor of Tehran when he was elected president. He made statements that proved that Iran intended to produce nuclear weapons. He said that Iran would use these weapons to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.