A brief history of democracy in Iran and US-Iran relations

Iranian citizens have been longing for democracy for quite a while. In 1906, Iran had a “Constitutional Revolution.” Oppressed by an absolute king, modern Iran was ready for a change. Widespread protests by clerics and merchants against the shah's mishandling of revenues and the foreign domination of Iranian assets lead to the Constitutional Revolution. The shah signed the new constitution in December, which effectively limited royal power and established an elected parliament, or Majles, thus creating the first Middle Eastern democracy.

 
In 1914, the Times of London wrote that British Parliamentarians would be well served to emulate democratic practices from their counterparts, in Iran’s Majles (parliament).

The young democracy had a big setback in 1950’s, however. The democratically elected and popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadeq, had planned to nationalize the country's oil assets. He had moved to limit foreign interests in Iran and to limit the shah's powers. The fact that their monopoly was being challenged made the British angry. They tried everything including a blockade. President Truman rejected their request for overthrowing the prime minister.

Eventually, the Eisenhower administration approved a joint British-American operation to overthrow Mossadeq, worried that his nationalist aspirations will lead to an eventual communist takeover. The operation was code-named Operation Ajax.

At first, the military coup seemed to fail, and the shah fled the country. After widespread rioting -- and with help from the CIA and British intelligence services -- Mossadeq was defeated and the shah returned to power, ensuring support for Western oil interests. Iranian people felt cheated. Mosadeq had sought to raise his country from poverty. Worst of all, the Iranian people who admired the United States, were shocked by these events. The United States was a beacon of hope for democracy.

Crushing the young democracy and bringing the Shah back into power, enabling him to run an oppressive government – bred resentment and anger that erupted a quarter of a century later..

The 1979 movement was originally sparked solely by the Iranian people’s desire for freedom and representative government – a reaction to the oppressive regime of the Shah. Under the Shah, Iran’s economy, military and diplomatic strength were at their highest levels – it was freedom Iranians wanted. Due to the absence of an opposing political structure however, Khomeini easily high-jacked the movement and transformed it into an Islamic Revolution. So the events that are predominantly known in the West by the Hostage Crisis were a reaction to the 1953 CIA-MI6 intervention.

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