America’s Role in Creating the Refugee Crisis

Iran

Iran is no stranger to the U.S. meddling in its affairs.  In 1953, the Eisenhower administration was fearful of a Communist takeover, so the U.S. overthrew Iran’s democratically-elected Prime Minister Mossadegh, and restored power to the repressive regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

By 1977, the beginning of what is now known as the Iranian Revolution, or 1979 Revolution, was underway.  Iranians were seeking to overthrow Pahlavi, who was seen as puppet of the West indebted to the United States and its allies.  The Shia community, who had the utmost respect for their religious clergy (ulema), found the Shah’s rule to be increasingly secular and Westernized.  While the Western government was a democracy that included basic human rights protections, Iranians were forced into a single-party system backed by the U.S. that crushed any dissent with excessive amounts of violence.  Iranian protestors wanted to re-establish laws from 1906 to 1909 that created a constitutional monarchy.  The 1906 Constitution required the Shah (monarch) to adhere to the rules of Islam and get the approval of the Parliament (majlis).  The protestors sought to install a democratic Islamic republic.

The U.S. forced Iranians into a single-party political system that crushed any dissent with excessive amounts of violence.

Specifically, protestors wanted to disband the SAVAK (the Shah’s secret police), who had a track record of quelling any dissent with violence and torture.  They also wanted a public apology from the government for slandering cleric Ayatollah Khomeini and Khomeini’s return from exile where he’d been since 1964, in addition to wage increases and worker’s benefits, the release of political prisoners, economic independence from foreign powers, and for the single-party system of government to be dismantled.

On April 1, 1979, Iran voted via a national referendum to become an Islamic republic and to approve a new theocratic-republican constitution.  Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country in December 1979.

If the overthrown Shah was pro-Western, Khomeini, likely a direct result and response to U.S. meddling, was his complete antithesis.  Khomeini often referred to the West as the “Great Satan.”  Many Iranians were suspicious of the U.S. due to its support for the Shah’s violent regime, and worried that the CIA would somehow put Pahlavi back in power.

The Iranian students had initially led the revolution with creative, nonviolent methods.  However, in 1979, after the Shah’s regime was overthrown, a group of Iranian students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days.  Due to that incident, the Carter administration severed diplomatic relations with Iran, and ordered Iranian assets in the U.S. be frozen.  This included a pre-revolution payment of $400 million to the U.S. government for fighter jets.

What most people don’t know is that just weeks prior to the attack, the embassy in Tehran warned Washington that it would be attacked.  The overthrown Shah, who was exiled, had first fled to Mexico where it was discovered he was battling an aggressive cancer.  It was recommended that he be admitted to the U.S. for treatment, but the Iranians protested this, believing that President Carter should honor his commitment to human rights in international affairs.

President Carter ultimately admitted the Shah to the U.S. for treatment, against the embassy’s warnings that if he did this the embassy would be taken.  The Iranian revolutionaries were enraged by what they considered an act of Western hypocrisy.  It’s said that this conflict was the West’s “first brush with ‘political Islam,'” and it’s interesting to note that it was a direct response to the United States’ catastrophic foreign policy maneuvers.

Iranians in the U.S. were subjected to bans by then-president Jimmy Carter that bear eerie similarities to the ones President Trump is calling for.

During the hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, Iranians in the U.S. were subjected to bans by then-president Jimmy Carter. President Carter singled out Iranian students and ordered them to report to immigration officers on campus to prove they were in the country legally.  They were fingerprinted (again) and, as Hamid Dabashi recalls, “…put against a wall in the Bennett Hall on the Penn campus and photographed.  If anyone of us had ‘violated’ the terms of our visas, we would be deported.”  Carter also ordered a halt on issuing visas to Iranian students, which meant that if students went to Iran to visit their families, or even left to go to Canada, they risked being banned from the United States — and continuing their education — indefinitely.

It should be noted that Carter’s ban included exceptions for medical or other humanitarian reasons, while Trump’s ban is so broad that it includes green card holders.

U.S. involvement did more than change Iran’s political landscape; it also contributed to the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the two nations more than a million lives, including 500,000 civilian lives; this number includes Iranians killed by Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons use.  The two countries had a long history of border disputes, and Hussein was concerned that Iraq’s long-suffering Shia population would be inspired by the insurgency in Iran, and follow suit with a revolt of their own.  It should be noted that during the war, the U.S. backed Iraq, despite knowing that Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons against the Iranians.

U.S. involvement contributed to the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the two nations more than a million lives

As a further result of this ensuing chaos, the Soviets were able to invade the neighboring country of Afghanistan, and the CIA began developing significant U.S. influences in Afghanistan, so as to oust the Soviets, including working with Pakistani intelligence to reach Afghan rebel groups.

To add to the hard feelings between the U.S. and Iran, in 1988, the U.S. Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 people who were on board the aircraft.  The 290 deaths included 66 children, and nationals from six different nations.  The United States neither apologized for the incident nor admitted to any wrongdoing and even awarded medals to the service members who (mistakenly) shot down the civilian plane.  A month after the attack, George H.W. Bush, then the vice president, soon to be president, said, “I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what the facts are.”

Six months later, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland.  Initially, a Palestinian militant group was blamed, accused of retaliating with the assistance of Iran.  Later, the blame was shifted to Libya.

A few years later, in 1991, the U.S.-backed Iraq was formally identified as the aggressor in the Iran-Iraq war, long after the war was over.

In March 2000, President Bill Clinton’s administration finally accepted America’s role in overthrowing Mossadegh, with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright saying that U.S. policies in Eisenhower’s time were “short-sighted” as the Clinton administration tried to repair relations with Iran.

It’s said the hostage crisis was the West’s “first brush with ‘political Islam,'” and it’s interesting to note that it was a direct response to the United States’ catastrophic foreign policy maneuvers.

Under the Obama administration came the Iran deal, in which Iran agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, and the U.S. and five other countries agreed to lift sanctions on Iran.

President Trump said on the campaign trail that Iran would be given $150 billion “for nothing” as part of the Iran deal, which is false a) in number and b) because it’s actually their money that they would now be allowed to access after thirty-something years. (It’s not a “ransom payment,” as Mike Pence has stated.)  China has warned the Trump administration against breaking the Iran deal.  Meanwhile, Iran has stated that a recently passed U.S. bill violates the Iran deal.  The bill seeks to continue sanctions on Iran for another 10 years, but makes no mention of the nuclear weapons discussed in the Iran deal.  Iran has threatened “appropriate” retaliations.

Another major impediment to better diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran is the U.S. alliance with Israel, which Iran rejects, saying, “Tehran will never forsake the Palestinian cause.” It should also be noted that other U.S. allies in the MENA region, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, do not recognize Israel either. In fact, at present, 31 member states of the United Nations do not recognize Israel.  Former President Carter, who once halted visas for Iranians, has referred to Israel as an apartheid regime and authored a book in support of Palestine.  (He also called Obama’s Iran deal ‘superb’).

Also of concern to U.S. allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, is that if the United States improves its relations with Iran, the U.S. may become sympathetic to other Shia groups, such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed by Iran, whom Saudi (and the U.S.) are at war with.