Iran-US In A Tug Of War

Tehran’s street was packed with mourners as a sea of people shouting slogans of ‘Death to America’, turned out to pay their respects to Qaseem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad’s international airport on 3rd January 2020. Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on the orders of US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the Middle Eastern country has raised the blood-red ‘flags of revenge’, vowing to retaliate the death of the General. Iran responded back to the killing of the General by launching missiles on 8th January at Iraqi bases used by the US military. The escalating tension between the two countries have heightened fears of a conflict with far-reaching implications.

- Mumeninaz Zaman

The tussle between the two nations has been a tricky one since the 1953 coup ousting Iran’s nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and re-installing, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who maintained a cordial relationship with the US. Mossadegh championed the cause of nationalizing the massive British-owned oil company in Iran and strongly opposed any foreign involvement in Iran, particularly in its oil industry. Considered as one of the most lucrative British enterprise anywhere on the planet, the British got furious and sought the help of the Americans to overthrow Mossadegh. The two western nations, through a covert operation of the CIA called Operation Ajax, conducted from the American Embassy in Tehran backed a coup that replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran.