Patrick Tawil's List: The Ayatollah returns

• After the Revolution

  • Sandbrook, Dominic. "After the Revolution." New Statesman (London, England) Vol. 138, No. 4933. Jan. 26 2009: 30-35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 29 Apr 2012.
• ending
• 2,000 years of monarchical rule and heralding the age of radical Islamism
• On the first day of February 1979, an Air France plane landed at Tehran Airpor
• who had not been in his native land for 15 years
• , a thousand waiting admirers began to chant his name: Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.
• As a Mercedes van carried him towards the city centre, the streets were lined with people peering from windows and from rooftops, people packed on to building sites and into flats, people who had been up since dawn to claim a space by the roadside, people hanging off cranes and on to ledges, people screaming and shouting with ecstasy.

  • I can use this information to display the attitude of the Iranian people upon Khomeini's return
• exile in 1964
• after denouncing the Shah's regime and his fealty to foreign interest

  • Maybe use this to demonstrate all the changes that occured when Khomeini went into power
• . Yet he became the face of a revolution that toppled a corrupt, repressive monarchy, unleashed a devastating oil shock and global economic crisis, inspired a new brand of religious fundamentalism, and bequeathed an autocratic regime that, for all its manifest corruption, stagnation and brutality, still endures today.
• , who toasted the Shah on New Year's Eve 1977 as the world leader with whom he felt most "personal friendship"
• , the most celebrated of the Shah's exiled opponents, then based in Paris

  • State: Khomeini was not the Shah's only political adversary who got exiled but Khomeini was definitely the most influencial.
• His goals, he told reporters, were "independence, democracy, tolerance, and progress".

  • Ironic, because he did not bring in total democracy or tolerance.
• In the first days of 1979, with the Shah preparing to flee Iran for a life of exile in California,

  • Shows where Shah specifically wanted to go
• On 11 February, with the Iranian general staff trapped in their bunker by revolutionary forces, an NSC aide called Sullivan and suggested that the time might be ripe to strike. Sullivan merely hung up on him. A few minutes later, Washington had a message from the embassy: "Army surrenders; Khomeini wins. Destroying all classified."

  • State that on February 11th the army is trapped and surrenders
• Certainly his regime (like almost every other in the region) had been guilty of numerous human rights abuses, but he had long been a valued American ally, and Jimmy Carter had, after all, publicly hailed him as a personal friend.

  • Where and Why:
    The Shah envisioned an exile in California, with his American allies. Furthermore, he did not fear the judicial courts as he believed that he had not committed any violation of his people's rights and that his close friend, Jimmy Carter, would never betray him.
• For months, though, Carter put him off, worried that his admission would infuriate Iranian opinion and jeopardise the safety of American diplomats in Tehran. Only when it emerged that the Shah was suffering from terminal cancer (and after a protracted lobbying campaign from the monarch's old friend Henry Kissinger), did Carter change his mind, and allow the Shah to fly to New York for treatment.

  • Ironically, Carter believed that his people's safety was greater than the Shah's and expected political repercussions form Iran if the Shah was let in. Later on, when Carter learnt about the Shah's cancer his humanitarian side took over and permited him to lodge in New York for his therapy.
• Every night, the networks showed Iranian mobs shaking their fists, denouncing the Great Satan and setting light to the American flag.

  • This demonstrates the hate Iran now has for the US
• In retrospect, too, the hostage crisis looks like a key moment in the development of a new kind of American nationalism:

  • The Hostage Crisis made the Americans more nationalists
• Outside the United Nations, Americans chanted "Bomb Iran"; in the streets of Tehran, Iranians chanted "Death to America". In New York, stores sold Ayatollah dolls, marketed with special torture equipment; in Tehran, clerics gleefully exhibited the charred remains of American servicemen killed in the helicopter disaster. None of this was inevitable; but once it had happened, there was no turning back.

  • I could maybe use this to show how the hostility that grew from the hostage crisis.
• with special torture equipment; in Tehran, clerics gleefully exhibited the charred remains of American servicemen killed in the helicopter disaster. None of this was inevitable; but once it had happened, there was no turning back.

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• Background Notes: Iran

  • "Background Notes: Iran." Background Notes. Feb 2012: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 29 Apr 2012.
• Following Khomeini's death on June 3, 1989, the Assembly of Experts chose the outgoing president of the republic, Ali Khamenei, to succeed him as Supreme Leader, despite Khamenei's relative lack of religious credentials.

  • This can be used to explain the flow of events that then succeeded and how maybe they could have been prevented if Khomeini never returned
• The Supreme Leader is the final arbiter on nearly all disputes among the various branches of government, although the Expediency Council is charged with resolving disputes between the Majles and the Council of Guardians. The Supreme Leader appoints officials to key positions including the head of judiciary and the Council of Guardians. He has the power to remove the president and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
• The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran is elected by universal suffrage to a 4-year term. The president supervises the affairs of the executive branch, appointing and supervising the Council of Ministers (members of the cabinet), coordinating government decisions, and selecting government policies to be placed before the Majles.

  • Possibly say that now Iran has a democracy. Maybe link it to other events and conclude by saying Iran is a Democracy built on suffering.
• In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini created the Expediency Council, which resolves legislative issues on which the Majles and the Council of Guardians fail to reach an agreement. Since 1989, it has been used to advise the Supreme Leader on matters of national policy as well. The Expediency Council is composed of the president, the speaker of the Majles, the judiciary chief, the clerical members of the Council of Guardians, and other members appointed by the Supreme Leader for 3-year terms

  • Without Khomeini the Expediency Council was created. It was a step towards democracy but as stated earlier (highlighted in pink) the supreme leader always had the final say.
• Iran's Nuclear Program
• Since September 2002, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been working to clarify the nature of Iran’s nuclear program

• Iran had failed to report, declare, and provide information on a number of critical issues.

   
• Since November 2004, IAEA Directors General have issued numerous reports on Iran’s implementation of its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of UN Security Council Resolutions 1737, 1747, 1803, and 1929. The IAEA Board found Iran in noncompliance with its Safeguards Agreement in September 2005 and, after Iran restarted uranium enrichment activities at Natanz in January 2006, the Board reported Iran to the UN Security Council (UNSC) for its noncompliance.

  • If Khomeini had not returned and a pro-west government would have stayed then Iran would have been more complient to the UN as they would have not wanted to disrupt relations with them and the West
• Since the fall of the Shah, economic recovery has proven elusive due to a combination of factors, including state interference in the economy and fluctuations in the global energy market. Economic activity was further disrupted by years of domestic political upheaval immediately following the revolution

  • The Ayatollah's return caused disrutions and caused the economy to be disrupted. Also, the Iran-Iraq war greatly affected Iran's economy. Furthermore, the oil's price fall was a huge catalyser to the declining Iranian economy
• These conditions were worsened by the war with Iraq and
• the decline in world oil prices beginning in late 1985.
• additionally resulted in a baby boom, which has left Iran with a large, underemployed youth population today. As a result, Iran suffers from a "brain drain" as its educated youth leave the country to pursue better economic opportunities abroad.

  • The return caused instability, thus Iraq tried to seize their chance and attacked Iran. Iran's attack caused a baby-boom which caused today's population to suffer from sever unemployment rates.
• Economic growth was further hindered by a decrease in oil revenues in 1991 and growing external debt

  • This demonstrate how Khomeini's return has hampered the Iranian economy
• Widespread underemployment amongst Iran’s educated youths has convinced many to seek employment overseas.

  • Shows how many educated people are fleeing while the uneducated stay. This is hard on Iran's development as they need educated people to advance in technology and research.
• On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran, and on April 24, 1981, the Swiss Government assumed representation of U.S. interests in Tehran.

  • Illustrates how US-Iran formal relation do not exist anymore. They ended only one year after Khomeini rose to power.
• Since 1993, Iran has been represented by the Embassy of Pakistan, in the Iranian Interests Section, in Washington, DC. Iran also has a permanent mission to the United Nations in New York City.
• "Background Notes: Iran." Background Notes. Feb 2012: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 29 Apr 2012.

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