Trump Steers Dangerous West Asian Policy

US President Donald Trump,with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made two declarations on Gaza. One, that he was determined to see the Palestinians find refuge in other lands and has earlier called on neighbouring West Asian countries to accept the one million plus survivors of the genocide.

And two, that the US will take over Gaza now, level the strip, and build new housing “for the people of the area” which obviously, given what he has said now and earlier, is a reference to Israelis and other likeminded people. This proposal for ethnic cleansing that has evoked strong reactions already from peoples of the world will open a new era of conflict and violence that might pale the year and more we have just witnessed.

As First Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian Embassy in Teheran from 1976 to 1979 I had the rare privilege of witnessing at close quarters the 1979 Revolution.

The day we landed (29th May 1976) my wife Usha, and I attended a reception hosted by a senior Savak (intelligence agency) official and his wife. Usha was grabbed by the fashionably dressed and articulate women.

I walked up to a young woman standing aloof. After not responding to the greeting, she burst out saying, rather too loudly, “I am ready to die and to kill”.

I had to work as a dentist to get the story out of her. She had not heard for months from her boyfriend taken away by Savak as they found ‘subversive literature’ in his hostel room at Teheran University. She believed he was killed and therefore she wanted to kill the Shah- Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. I left her saying that we should keep in touch, as I saw a bevy of beauties approaching me.

They said that they had a problem with the Shah. Some troublemakers were active, if the Shah gave permission they could be disposed of in 48 or 72 hours but the Shah was too kind to give that permission.

There was a big photograph of the hostess with the Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi. In the corner of the wall was a matchbox size photo of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The bostess and I used to frequently meet the same Savak official. When we met her the first time the hostess had a sleeveless top. Over time she lengthened her sleeves and one day she had full sleeves and the photo with the Shahbanu was replaced by a big one of the Ayatollah. The next day I saw my hostess carrying a stone taking part in an anti-Shah demonstration.

I used to make it a point to go and observe such demonstrations. To me it was clear that at times the security forces were in cahoots with the protesters. I saw the protesters set fire to a foreign bank – the British Bank of the Middle East - and run away as the security forces approached them slowly, giving them enough time to set fire to the bank.

Incidentally, that morning an Armenian merchant had told me that protesters were coming to the part of the town where the embassy was and that they were setting fire to cinema houses, foreign banks, and liquor shops. I asked my colleagues to quietly go to the bank and withdraw money without giving the impression that the Embassy had any reason to believe that anything was going to happen to the bank.

After everyone else had withdrawn money, I went. The girl at the counter asked me what was up. I smiled as she added that she wanted to give me more money than in my account. I thanked her and declined. She was stuffing her handbag with currency notes and so did the other girls. I told the girl that I wanted to see her the next day for coffee, and she agreed. I got out of the bank and waited for the protesters.

Meanwhile, the bank was evacuated and the girl greeted me from a distance. For once in my life, I was unchivalrous and looked through her as I did not want to be noticed by Savak.

I met her the next day. She was happy that her bank was destroyed as it hastened the fall of the Shah.

When I mentioned to my ambassador that some Iranians believed he was likely to fall, he did not take me seriously. He retorted that when he met the Shah the other day, he was looking supremely confident. I replied that royalty was taught to look confident even on the deck of the Titanic.

The diplomatic corps by and large failed to read the writing on the wall. Once my colleagues from Sweden, the US, and the UK wanted me to raise my glass as they toasted the Shah who was celebrating the completion of 2500 years of the Persian Empire.

The American colleague said that history showed that the Empire would last forever. He meant the rule by the Shah. The other two agreed with alacrity. As I kept quiet, they asked me. I said I agreed with them, but it would be nice to cross-check with Iranians. Dead silence followed till I changed the topic and asked about then US President Jimmy Carter.

The Shah fled in January 1979 and on 1st February Khomeini came to Teheran from exile to a rapturous reception. Iran opted for theocracy and the rest is history.

Young Iranians, mostly educated in the West, used to approach me before the fall of the Shah asking for a copy of our Constitution. There was no computer, and we cyclostyled the text. The youngsters admired India for its robust democracy, despite the Emergency. Alas, the clergy led by Khomeini wanted a vicious variation of theocracy.

The Shah through the Savak suppressed the freedom of expression and only the clergy in the mosque had that freedom. Khomeini’s speeches from Paris were circulated widely as audio clips.

I am of the view that Washington has been unfair in prolonging under one pretext or another the sanctions on Iran following the takeover of the embassy on 4th November 1979. I am not endorsing the takeover.

To put the matter in a historical context. Carter’s National Security Adviser Brzezinski met Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan on 1st November 1979 in Algeria. Bazargan, an admirer of Gandhi, was wanting to take Iran in the direction of democracy.

Brzezinski told Bazargan that Washington would deliver all the weapons the Shah had paid for; Iran and the US should work together to prevent Soviet expansionism. Bazargan agreed.

Suddenly, he was told by his staff that the radio reported that Carter was giving political asylum to the Shah. Bazargan demanded that the Shah be returned to Iran. Brzezinski refused and the talks broke down.

Once the news of the asylum spread, young followers of Khomeini, without asking him for permission, took over the Embassy on 4th November.

Carter was misled by David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. They lied to him that the Shah was seriously ill and needed treatment available only in the US. The Embassy in Teheran and his Secretary of State Cyrus Roberts Vance had advised against giving asylum. Carter’s attempt to get the hostages out by a military operation was a dismal failure and he lost the election to Reagan, mainly because of the hostage crisis. Carter publicly admitted his mistake in giving asylum.

Looking at the larger geopolitical picture, leave alone ethics as hardly any political leader nowadays cares for it, it is obvious that if Washington lifts the sanctions Iran would move away from the Russia-China axis.

Israel has been saying for years that Iran was weeks away from making a bomb even after the CIA concluded in 2003 that Iran was not engaged in it. Such is Israel’s influence over its protector America that eventually President Barack Obama got Iran to sign a deed committing it to confine itself to civil nuclear activities. Israel was opposed to the deal. That deal was broken by Trump in 2018.

It will be in the interest of America, Iran, and the rest of the world including Israel, for Trump to re-negotiate the nuclear deal as Iran has expressed willingness. Will Trump do the right thing? Or will he be fooled by Netanyahu? His announcement of taking over Gaza shows that he has been a more than willing victim.

Ambassador K.P.Fabian retired from the Indian Foreign Service. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.