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The current war against Iran has been framed in many ways: an “imminent threat” requiring a pre-emptive strike; a battle against a tyrannical regime; the need to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes and eliminate proxy terrorism. Few have focused on the history and memory that has shaped Iranian conduct and will determine its future.

Western interference in Iran began early. British General Edmund Ironside seized power on behalf of Brigadier Reza Khan, who was anointed king in place of the Qajar dynasty. When he was removed in 1941, his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was placed on the throne – all to control the oil fields of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later renamed British Petroleum.

Mohammed Reza ruled as an autocrat until 1951, when Mohammed Mosaddegh was appointed Prime Minister. In 1953, the British and Americans organised a coup that overthrew his government, which had introduced significant social and political reforms. His real crime was nationalising Iranian oil. With his removal, the chances of Iran emerging as a modern democracy receded dramatically. The Shah crowned himself emperor, ruled with an iron hand, and was feted by the West as a moderniser – the principal security actor of the region, supplied with America’s latest weapons.

The 1979 revolution was engineered by a coalition of religious leaders, bazaaris, and leftists. But the clerics under Ayatollah Khomeini sidelined the secular elements and established a regime based on the Vilayat-e-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) – a system permitting elected non-clerical government under careful clerical supervision. Real power rested with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Basij militia.

The nuclear programme

Iran’s civil nuclear programme was the Shah’s vanity project, begun in the 1950s with American and Western European support. The first research reactor, supplied by the US, was commissioned in 1967. By 1974, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran had nearly 5,000 staff. Siemens began constructing two reactors at........

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