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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
During the Revolution, Khomeini and his associates condemned
both the United States and the Soviet Union as equally malevolent
forces in international politics. They believed the United States,
because of its close relationship with the regime of the shah, was
the superpower that posed the most immediate danger to their
revolution. Thus, they referred to the United States as the "Great
Satan," a term that continued to be used in 1987. In contrast, they
regarded the Soviet Union, because it had not been as closely
involved with the shah, as the "Lesser Satan." The United States
represented the West, or capitalism, while the Soviet Union
represented the East, or socialism. The revolutionaries embraced
Khomeini's view that these materialist ideologies were ploys to
help maintain imperialist domination of the Third World, and thus
they were inherently inimical to Islam. Consequently, a major
foreign policy goal from the time of the Revolution has been to
preclude all forms of political, economic, and cultural dependence
on either Western capitalism or Eastern socialism and to rely
solely upon Islam.
The most dramatic symbol of the revolutionary determination to
assert independence of both the East and the West was the hostage
crisis between Iran and the United States. Although the seizure of
the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979 initially had been
undertaken by nongovernmental groups to demonstrate their anger at
the admission of the shah into the United States, this incident
rapidly developed into a major international crisis when Khomeini
and the Revolutionary Council gave their ex post facto sanction to
it. The crisis lasted for 444 days, during which time those
political leaders who were most hostile to Western influences used
it to help achieve their aim of severing diplomatic and other ties
between Tehran and Washington.
After 1980 Iran adopted positions opposed to those of the
United States on a wide variety of international issues. Although
officials in both countries eventually approved of some secret
contacts, most notably those involving clandestine arms shipments
to Iran from Israel and the United States during 1985 and 1986, the
bitterness that the hostage crisis left on both sides made it
difficult for either country to consider normalizing relations as
late as the end of 1987.
The West European allies of the United States are also viewed
with suspicion. France, in particular, has been singled out as a
"mini-Satan" that collaborates with the United States in the
oppression of Muslims. Although initially Iran's political elite
were favorably disposed toward France because Paris had provided
refuge to Khomeini when he was expelled from Iraq in 1978,
relations between the two countries steadily deteriorated after
1980. Two issues have been the source of the Iranian hostility:
France's support of Iraq, especially its provision of weapons, and
the fact that since 1981 France has been the headquarters for most
of the expatriate opposition groups. France and Iran also had
opposing perspectives on several international issues, most notably
developments in Lebanon. In the spring of 1986, the French
government initiated a policy of trying to reduce tensions with the
Islamic Republic. As part of this effort, France pressured the
Mojahedin to close its Paris headquarters and agreed to repay the
Iranian government part of a US$1 billion loan that had been
extended to a French nuclear energy consortium during the reign of
the shah. France was unwilling, however, to accede to Iran's demand
that it cease arms sales to Iraq. Consequently, relations between
Paris and Tehran vacillated between correctness and tension.
This was dramatically illustrated in July 1987, when the two
countries became involved in a major diplomatic confrontation. The
Iranian embassy in Paris provided haven to an Iranian national who
had been summoned to appear in court in connection with a series of
terrorist bombings in the French capital. Although France broke
diplomatic relations with Iran over this issue and a series of
related incidents, both countries seemed determined to salvage
their rapprochement policy. In December France agreed to expel more
Iranian Mojahedin activists and to repay Iran a second installment
on its outstanding loan, in return for Iranian mediation efforts in
obtaining the release of French citizens being held as hostages in
Lebanon. Diplomatic relations were restored as of the end of 1987.
Iran's postrevolutionary relations with the Soviet Union and
its allies have been significantly less dramatic. Tehran has
expressed its opposition to numerous Soviet international policies.
For example, Iran severely criticized the Soviet Union for
dispatching its troops into Afghanistan at the end of 1979 and took
the lead several months later in denouncing Moscow at a conference
of foreign ministers of Islamic countries. Soviet support for the
Marxist-Leninist regime in Kabul continued to be a source of
friction between the two countries in 1987. Soviet support of Iraq,
especially the provision of weapons, has been another area of
contention between Moscow and Tehran. Iran also has accused the
Soviet Union of assisting Iranian opposition groups, especially the
Tudeh. Nevertheless, Iran and the Soviet Union have maintained
diplomatic relations, and the two countries have striven to keep
their relations correct, if not always cordial.
Although Iran remained distrustful of the Soviet Union's
international policies, it generally avoided injecting its
anti-imperialist ideology into economic relations. Thus, trade with
the Soviet Union became relatively important after 1979. This
included not only direct trade between Iran and the Soviet Union
but also transit trade from Iran through the Soviet Union to
markets in Europe. Tensions over economic matters continued,
however, particularly over the issue of natural gas shipments to
the Caucasus republics via the pipeline that had been constructed
before the Revolution. When in 1980 Moscow resisted Tehran's
attempt to raise the price charged for this natural gas, the
pipeline was closed. In the summer of 1986, the two countries
worked out a new agreement but as of December 1987 natural gas
shipments had not been resumed.
Data as of December 1987
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