Fight for Oil: 100 Years in the Middle East (1/3)

when oil bubbled here a hundred years ago great hopes were attached to it for the first time in the Middle East modern treasure hunters were rewarded in Iran today a busy road connects the Gulf Coast with mozzies Suleiman a small market town which also lies at the center of large oil fields since antiquity oil and gas sputtered to the Earth's surface here in 1902 the traces of black gold in the valley of oil lured English oil investors to the remote and barren caste mountain range mules and camels had to haul tools and building materials from the coast to the heart of the province cruises done blistering heat lack of water and the hostility of the local nomads couldn't discourage the oil pioneers head of the English expedition was the tough legendary Scottish engineer George Reynolds the first oil rigs built with primitive means only yielded disappointments for years no profitable oil whirl was struck in London the financier slowly became impatient they were beginning to run out of money above all William Knox Darcy the speculator and adventurer who had made a fortune with gold mines in Australia when charmeuse a Ferelden offered him a concession for black gold in Persia he jumped at the opportunity the Shah was in desperate need of money and 1901 so the Englishman and oil concession for forty thousand pounds he spent huge amounts of money on his extensive luxury travels to Europe London was concerned she considered the Mideast region to be part of the British sphere of interests from which she could secure access to the Gateway to India the British government asked the Scottish Burma oil to help Darcy out two men the young Contessa phony left I regret to say that oil brought only ill our country that's the word the oil contract between Persia and Britain with enough Saudis or rather with a British company in 1901 was signed at a time in which two large imperial powers were ruling our countries everything it is the pay is that one can say that at the time almost all the large economic sectors of the country were either under the control of Britain issue before of Russia if cavity Bantam a mere two countries were rivals Russia as later the Soviet Union were intent on ruling Iran alone Ashton has plans of show that only came to light later on it will see you as the she would give that imagine what at hua Cuba and Roche a short cold Iran de leche Mulsanne that swishy power politics also played a role in the search for oil in the eyes of the British Russia which had already occupied northern Persia had to be pushed back and her advance to the Indian Ocean prevented in the seventh year of their trial drillings Reynolds and his men still fought against the unbearable heat and the perils of engineering on the other hand the financier darcy and burma oil were broke in a letter dated the 14th of May 1908 Reynolds was asked to shut down the operations the delivery of the letter however took weeks in the early morning hours of May the 25th after an especially hot night the on-site security force was awakened by the noise of an oil fountain rising high above the oil rig oil had been found in Persia several days later in a triumphant telegram the British chargee d'affaires in Tehran informed the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward grey above the discovery of oil Reynolds dismissal was reversed London now intensified its efforts to consolidate its influence in Persia the South was sparsely populated here the Nomad clan are the bakhtiari ruled which refused to yield to the Shahs powers the clan signed its own contracts with the British who needed access to oil as early as 1907 London was in a position to close a contract with Moscow about the partitioning of Persia into spheres of interest the southern British the northern Russian and a neutral buffer zone in between many inhabitants of the southern provinces still identify as bakhtiari and some of them still live as nomads who get by with a little they always had their flocks of sheep even close to the oil fields as here in masjid Suleiman they pitched their tents and what that in fact five important clans lived in this area all of them were under the control of the British and the oil fields were in this region two Englishmen Britain was convinced this territory also belonged to them as the local rulers did business with rock em down dirt at enough was issued after the oil contract had been signed one of the first things the British did in 1905 was to negotiate a contract with a bakhtiari without the Persian government being involved at all from now on the oil company was an independent government within OSHA without regard for the Shah in Tehran the British company concluded contracts with a nomad clans that are dozens of Great Britain saw her power threatened by the German Reich which challenged the Navy with a fleet of battleships Winston Churchill at the time First Lord of the Admiralty pressed for the English dreadnaughts to be converted from coal to oil combustion in future the ships had to be faster than the Germans which ran on coal in Istanbul the Germans belatedly joined the race for oil Turkey asked the friendly German rice for the construction of the Baghdad railroad so she could access her Arabian province Mesopotamia later it was to be built all the way to Basra the Persian Gulf in Mesopotamia the later Iraq one expected to find rich oil resources the Kaiser who had himself portrayed in an ottoman pasha uniform gave top priority to the construction of the railroad the satirical newspaper the Lustig and later ridiculed the imperialistic project paved the way for German cultural activities in the Orient German financial interest for the project was never publicly disclosed only when the Kaiser exerted pressure did the Deutsche Bank agree to provide financing despite enormous technical difficulties the construction of the railroad made good progress during World War one the collapse of the Ottoman Empire however forced to stop the construction work Baghdad was still far away led by the famous Lawrence of Arabia Arabian guerrillas blew up rail segments over and over again in Persia the English were faster with the help of only a single pipeline they were able to transport the oil from Masjid Suleiman to the coast over a stretch of 200 kilometers the pipes had to be laid through two rocky hilly ranges and a broad desert plain this roads lines and bridges were non-existent this could almost only be achieved by sheer muscle power and with the help of thousands of horses mules and camels only in the more flat terrain tractors could be used in the summer of 1912 after one and a half years the pipeline reached abadan where the first loading port and the first refinery on the Persian Gulf were constructed oil could now set out to conquer the world just in time to play a major role in World War one oil was the blood of victory at first at sea where the German coal fueled fleet was inferior to the British fleet mechanization advanced at a breathtaking speed also on land and in the air in the midst of the war the British invented the tank which in the end would be decisive for the trench warfare at the Western Front on both sides tens of thousands of trucks and thousands of aeroplanes were built during the war years the German Reich which only received limited amounts of oil from Romania collapsed due to shortage of oil in 1918 the Ottoman Empire collapsed the British together with their Arab allies drove the Turks out of Mesopotamia the war had confirmed Churchill's point of view without oil a great nation could not survive at his behest the British state by an act of Parliament strengthened their shares in the anglo-persian oil company after the war petrol and oil consumption multiplied at the assembly line Henry Ford built his tin Lizzie the first people's car the era of the car had begun now the British were determined to also bring the oil fields of Mesopotamia under their control France pursued the same goal in the part of Mesopotamia she had conquered in London Prime Minister Clemenceau met his colleague Lloyd George to discuss their respective interests both aspired a mandate by the League of Nations in Geneva for their part of the former Turkish province for Syria and for Iraq as both had already shown military presence in the region the League of Nations agreed it was the beginning of part 2 of European oil imperialism the British assigned an exceptional woman Gertrude Bell to fulfil the League of Nations mission to build up a sovereign state in Iraq during the time of the mandate an expert on the orient out of passion who spoke perfect Arabic she was present at all high-level talks also participating in the discussions about border issues with the Saudi King Eden Saud at a conference in Cairo she convinced the new British Secretary of State for the colonies Churchill to withdraw from direct rule in Baghdad and agree to the establishment of a monarchy the cartoon the lady was trusted by the sheiks as she knew better than they where the borders of their clan territory ran in a modest tone she wrote to her mother on the 4th of December 1921 one way or another I think I've succeeded in compiling a reasonable frontier the Armenian oil merchant Calouste Gulbenkian helped the British consolidate their oil Empire known as the incredibly rich mr. 5% he was a partner in the Turkish oil company in which the Deutsche Bank also had a holding of 25% since pre-war times but the German losers were now expelled the anglo-persian oil company which since 1914 also had a holding in the Turkish oil company was now in charge she accepted the French as the heirs to the German interest but no American oil companies Washington was up in arms against the British monopoly and demanded its own concession for Standard Oil as an alternative due to British pressure Baghdad denied his request Allen Dulles the Near East representative at the State Department at the time was a particularly persuasive advocate of an open door policy in the end London yielded in favor of Standard Oil and its ruthless president teedle it needed American funds for the development of the Iraqi oil fields Standard Oil took over the leadership of an American consortium which was given a holding of almost 24% the newly founded Iraq oil company was made up of five partners the negotiations were only completed a few days before oil gushed out of the first oil well in ba ba gua gua near Kirkuk an area mainly inhabited by kurds in return for acting as intermediator Gulbenkian was rewarded with five percent of the holding as mr. five percent he became one of the richest men of his time Gulbenkian now drew the red line on a large map of the Mideast along the borders of the collapsed Turkish Empire which obliged all associates not to single-handedly and without informing the others drill for oil in this region as a result Saudi Arabia was declared to be within Great Britain's sphere of interest the British interests in Iraq were now administered by King Faisal the first who after his coronation was received by King George the 6th in London as a Sunni Muslim and a member of the Hashemite dynasty which had been expelled from Saudi Arabia Faisal was disliked by many Iraqis especially by the Shiites he was regarded as a minion of the English oil imperialists who could only rule with their military assistance when gertrude bell went to that country those were structures that nobody else knew how to live other than through these structures they were that people thought of themselves as members of tribes they were not members of a state they were that their loyalty was not to a state it was not to a city it was to a tribe and that tribe would move and that tribe had relations with other tribes and so on but those kinds of relations social relations have gone long since gone near Baghdad the British ran the air base Hibernia which Iraqi insurgents with the help of German Messerschmitts had dare to attack in 1941 the German planes came from Syria at the time still a colony of defeated France the British effortlessly dealt with the attacks and the German warplanes for the rest of the war British troops stayed as occupation forces in Iraq in the Suez Canal the American Cruiser Quincey was the setting for a surprising stopover by President Roosevelt on his way back home from Yalta he met with the Saudi Arabian King Eden Saud who arrived with a large entourage on the quinsy in February 1945 at the conference of Yalta post-war world order had been discussed but Roosevelt had more in mind he also wanted a new oil order Roosevelt had singled out the king to play a special role in the fight for oil in this scheme the close ally Churchill only played a minor role disgruntled he made a formal call on the quinsy during the war America had through the lend-lease agreement not only supplied 90% of the Allied oil and petrol needs but had also delivered great amounts of war materiel as a result American citizens had to put up with petrol rationing the oil scarcity was partly due to German submarines who would successfully pursued u.s. tank ships in the Atlantic until they had to yield to American superiority already in 1943 Washington was worried about the depletion of their oil resources and looked to Saudi Arabia whose oil fields had hardly been touched during the war Everitt leader gaya who as the discoverer of the Mexican oil fields had become America's most famous oil Explorer and geologist was sent to Saudi Arabia as early as 1943 to create an overview of the country's oil wealth for himself about his travels he made a film excerpts from it are shown here for the first time in public his findings which he reported to Washington only a few months later were sensational he predicted that in the future the Mideast would be the center of world oil production in his report he also included Iran and Iraq as well as Kuwait Bahrain and Carter whose resources he also analyzed even in his most cautious estimates he assumed that 25 billion barrels could be found in the region 5 billion of them in Saudi Arabia but in other estimates he also held resources of 300 billion barrels 100 billion barrels in Saudi Arabia alone for possible after encounters with poor and strictly religious locals he recognized with great foresight the social and political impact which an oil boom in the region would have upon the people he recommended letting them participate in it as much as possible Roosevelt had been convinced by his Home Secretary Harold Ickes also responsible for oil policy that he must declare Saudi Arabia to lie within the American area of interest to the British ambassador in Washington he said the Persian Isle is all yours the oil in Iraq and Kuwait we will share as to the Saudi oil it belongs to us Roosevelt made it brutally clear to the British that he would not accept their claim to Saudi Arabia hidden Saudis Empire at the time barely 20 years old had emerged from a pact between the clan Saud and religion in the 18th century the Saudis had joined forces with the sect leader Abdul Wahab who preached a return to the Puritan belief of the Prophet Muhammad and who called for jihad for the holy war against the infidels and Abdul Wahab declared the Quran to be the constitution of the country Eden Saud was also a fervent Quran scholar and a strict Wahhabi who was preparing to reconquer the Saud tribal area and the capital Riyadh both of which had been lost in battle to the Jabal Shammar tribe neighbouring to the north and its rulers the al Rasheed family the bed winds in this region in the najd a barren dry and hot high plateau were also strict Wahabis and feared warriors from their midst evens out formed a powerful troop the equine the equines heroic deeds and the recapture of rehad at the beginning of the 20th century a part of the even sound myth shown here in Hollywood Manor in a film produced by the Saudi oil company Aramco the attack on the Russians who were allied with the unpopular Turks were supported above all by the Wahhabi clergy with us hoped for the re-establishment of the theocracy and returned to their old power even south still had one untag in his lift the Hashemite ruler Hussein bin Ali who was proconsul for the Turks administered the holy sites of Islam Mecca and Medina in 1918 after the overthrow of the Sultan even Saud attacked his equal troops committed such atrocious massacres that Mecca surrendered without a fight and made in a fell after a cruel siege the unification of the country by sword was completed the green flag of the Prophet waving everywhere while visible rose in the 18th century in deserts Arabia it was one of several movements a half lap would his reaction and response to the growing power of the Western world unlike the others it was not primarily anti-western the the diagnosis of him not Wahab was something like this we have fallen behind we have become poor and backward because we have abandoned of the true faith we have begun to imitate the ways of the infidels and follow wrong paths so whereas the reformist movements said more modernization the Wahhabi said what modernization which is really westernization is the source of all our problems and they wanted to go back to the past which of course means an imaginary past of the past to be in control of Mecca was important for even Saud now he could pose worldwide as the custodian of Islam and the hundreds and thousands of pilgrims filled the treasury with money thus he had himself crowned king of Saudi Arabia in 1932 the House of Saud came from the district and nudged desert Arabia remote and without much impact on anyone but in the mid-twenties they were able to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and create what came to be known as the Saudi Kingdom as custodians of the holy places this gave them tremendous influence and prestige all over the Muslim world it also gives them control of the pilgrimage which brings millions of Muslims from all over the Muslim world to the holy cities every same time same place the income from the pilgrims supplemented the revenues which the country earned from the export of dates and of pearls which divers fished out of the Persian Gulf but after the invention of cultured pearls the price for pearls suddenly dropped and due to the world economic crisis the Hajj the annual pilgrimage was reduced to a trickle Mecca was deserted hidden sod was now a poor man he would not even pay the salaries of state employees anymore salvation came not from Allah but from Standard Oil on the 29th of May 1933 the Minister of Finance Abdullah Sulaiman and standard oil's legal adviser Lloyd Hamilton signed a contract over the first oil concession because of religious objections against the exploitation of Arabian natural resources by foreigners and infidels the king had asked the ulama there were hobby Council of senior religious scholars to issue a fatwa a judgment in accordance with the Quran which said as oil is a present from Allah if produced by foreigners for the well-being of the country this is permitted a few years later the present began to bubble in April 1939 even Saud driving in a procession of 400 cars came through the desert from Riyadh to Dharan in Dharam at the east coast only a few kilometers away from the oil fields an oil tank Depot and a pipeline directly connected to the loading port rasta Nara were built the standard oil tanker DJ Schofield was chosen to load the first oil cargo for export the King insisted on being the one to personally open the oil valve for the fueling of the tanker today a simple memorial with the inscription prosperity well reminds one of well number seven from which the first oil flew prosperity well a self-conscious sign of wealth and power behind around Iran of the outskirts of gawa the largest oil field in the world an oil darada spreads out on the gulf coast with huge oil bunkers and the world's largest refinery the sudden flow of money beyond the wildest dreams of avarice so you suddenly have this combination of a monarchy in possession of the holy cities in control of the pilgrimage and unlimited money all of them at the disposal of the Wahabis this made Wahhabism of world force in-game waha BISM a tremendous impact wherever there are Muslims and it made a world force of what otherwise would have been an extremist fringe in a marginal country from Duran in Saudi Arabia it's only a short hop across the Gulf to Abaddon in Persia where it all began in 1908 it's still the largest oil center in Iran even if its efficiency is not comparable to that of data read Zarkon a general of the palace guard who had proclaimed himself Shah in 1925 tried like evens out to unify and modernize the country he built roads and created industries and against the resistance of the Shiite mullahs he improved the rights of women and abolished mandatory headscarf wearing other than Saudi Arabia his country was dragged into the turmoil of World War 2 as the Shah was in constant conflict with the British about their share in the oil revenues he flirted with Hitler after his invasion of Russia London was not any more opposed to the occupation of Iran by Russian troops in late August of 1941 the jointly force razor can to resign exiled him to South Africa and proclaimed his youngest son his successor in the parliament formerly existent since 1906 the young Shah took his oath of office otherwise he was confined without any powers to his palaces as the occupation forces restricted his freedom of action Stalin enjoyed some popularity in the poor country due to American pressure he all the same agreed to withdraw his troops from northern Iran at the beginning of the cold war in 1946 in Tehran there were bid farewell in a friendly manner by the population what remained was a strong communist party the two-day party which fought against the British oil Lords the Americans the landowners and against the mullahs whose influence under the weak Shah was once again growing elected in 1951 for the National Front Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq was also dependent on the two-day party his aim was to nationalize the anglo-iranian oil company and to end British influence in Iran Toulon worked at the carving I am during this time the oil companies controlled various ministries and even had influence at the court of the sharp thus they virtually held all political power in Iran nerfed doctrine sadly hung mr. Dean dr. Masaryk fought with all his might for the independence of his country but that in whole acute about goofy manova he was especially concerned about the oil but just as important to him was the independence of the Iranian people so that they would be able to achieve their political and economic goals Cuba - miren Bakunin Marat ROTC ocf to Saudi ho tundra time England oil again Moses threat to peace and the Middle East again becomes a trouble spot directly after the nationalization which was reluctantly also signed by the Shah hatred against the anglo-iranian and the British broke out and turned into rejoicing and wild demonstrations especially in our burden and tear on the Iranian flag was hoisted over buildings belonging to the English in Abaddon's 125 degrees of heat the international situation is explosive Masaryk a Western educated owner of large estates but also a fervent nationalist was now popular masada greets the Shah after a hospital stay he only indicates a bow and the handshake is cool on both sides the Americans viewed old Massey not without sympathy for fear of a British military operation in Iran President Truman insisted on a mediation attempt even though he called the head of the anglo-persian oil company Sir William Fraser a typical colonial slave driver from the 19th century they hatred for the English led to more and more demonstrations especially in abadan the tension escalated the American ambassador delivered a letter by President Truman to Masonic in which he announced the arrival of his special emissary Averell Harriman Masada occurs often before received his visitor in pajamas lying in bed allegedly because of his tendency to bouts of dizziness upon Harriman's arrival the atmosphere was tense and hostile during further demonstrations by the illegal communists two-day party which were also aimed against the Shah ten dead were reported for the first time Mounted Police were deployed after weeks of negotiations Herriman gave up Masaryk was not asking for higher stakes from the anglo-persian oil revenues but as he feared for his power he insisted on nationalization on September the 25th 1951 masada gave the British one week to vacate the facilities in Abaddon thereupon the British shut off the oil supplies and threatened foreign tankers with legal steps in case they attempted to ship stolen oil the British Exodus began while women children and sick were allowed to fly out the others gathered on the 4th of October at the Gymkhana Club the center of the English community to close ranks and board the English Cruiser Mauritius which was to bring them to safety to Basra while the ship left the harbour the band defiantly played the River Kwai March with this gesture the 50 year long British history in the Gulf came to an end it symbolized the downfall of Britain's reputation and power in the world but Masaryk was in no situation to celebrate his success the embargo imposed by Great Britain was showing results the Avedon refinery stood still the country on the verge of an economic collapse women petheram Bruzzi every day my father gave me one person real as pocket-money who led a jam character with them by save the money to buy large banners together with other children from the neighborhood who like myself with schoolchildren really not sure an investor would do on the method we wrote slogans for masonic and against the British and their oil companies lefty and we hung them up around the city not a passion get him to shaft but timid loose tongue Masaryk now wanted all power for himself and mobilized the masses against the Shah during a demonstration in Tehran the equestrian statue of Riza calm the father of the Shah was toppled off its pedestal old mossy had gotten wind at the shah's plans to overthrow him and was now working on his expulsion the situation became threatening for the Shah and the Empress they decided to temporarily leave the country and stay in the Roman Hotel Excelsior in the meantime the Soviet diplomats Ilyn who in 1948 in Prague had held the Communists come to power had been appointed ambassador in Tehran and Masonic relied even more on the today party the new American President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State Dulles already saw all of the Mideast fall under Soviet influence there was only one solution Masonic had to be overthrown head of CIA Allen Dulles the brother of the Secretary of State was assigned operation Ajax to which London had agreed the Sadek was to be replaced by a general loyal to the Shah the tide change within a few days now the masses demonstrated for the Shah stirred up by the army which stormed Mossad ex villa old Massey could only escape by jumping across the garden fence as planned general sigh hey Dee head of the army and loyal to the Shah took over command and distributed copies of the letter of dismissal from us addict to journalists the next morning in Rome the charr boarded a plane and returned to Terra in the meantime Masaryk had been arrested at his country estate a court sentenced him to three years in prison after he served his term he was placed on the lifelong house arrest now they're fairly thought that it would still are more than a fairly pike you he was an honest man a great Democrat and during his government we achieved a maximum of democracy justice and independence the more time goes by the more students and young people realize but during this period we were having the best time of our lives in his diary President Eisenhower wrote about the CIA's success the operation Ajax seemed more like a dime novel than a historical fact the Shah had come out of the crisis more self-confident and with the will to consolidate his power which was to be reflected in his coronation he also didn't want the British back the oil and the facilities remained in national possession but for management and distribution he needed a new partner the American seize the opportunity under their leadership they formed a consortium made up of seven Western oil companies among them for American and the British and low Persian as a minority shareholder from all revenues the Shah received half the oil from Abaddonn was flowing again at the time Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was the most powerful man in the Mideast he was an Arabian nationalist who hated Israel the colonial powers and the oil companies from the English and the French who operated the Suez Canal he demanded payment of half of the fees when both refused he had the Canal Zone occupied and nationalized was a Turk that Harbor Mione Mosaddegh growth is exerted great influence on the middle assembly among others on abdul nasir dermis tasida is the audience at the nationalization of the Suez Canal and its recognition as Egyptian territory are a result of the ideas the message shown of this and the impact yes of Mossad a also laughs Gordon was said that the British and the French planned a military intervention to ward this off NASA blocked the canal by sinking ships filled with stones and cement in accordance with the joint war strategy Israeli troops initially pushed forward through the Sinai Peninsula to the Suez Canal London and Paris issued an ultimatum asking NASA to suspend all hostilities when he did not respond they began with their landing approach at sea and from the air they bombed Cairo and occupied the harbor town of Port sight for England's Prime Minister Antony Eden NASA was a second Hitler whom one had to oppose with all one's might he has followed Hitler's pattern even to concentration camps on the propagation of mine Kumpf among his officers he has understood and used gurbles pattern of propaganda in all its lying ruthlessness in the meantime the Arabs and the Saudis had stopped their oil shipments in Europe petrol became scarce and the British who since the downfall of their empire were basically bankrupt ran out of money moreover the English and French adventure in the Suez Canal took place at the same time as the brutal suppression of the uprising in Hungary by Soviet tanks there with they had morally discredited their intervention and provoked unfriendly comparisons on an international level especially in the white house United States was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions nor were we informed of them in advance in the circumstances I have described there will be no United States involvement in these present hostilities it is our hope and intent this matter will be brought before the United Nations General Assembly after President Eisenhower refused to supply Paris and London with oil and money the English and the French had no other option than to immediately withdraw and leave the reopening of the Suez Canal to the UN blue helmets as initiated by Eisenhower Great Britain's decline in the Mideast now also began to undermine its position in Iraq NASA's Pan Arabian ideas strengthen the resistance against the pro-western policy of the young king faisal ii in the summer of 1956 after his coronation he had been received by queen elizabeth during a state visit in london he was regarded as London's most reliable ally in the region who had also participated in the punitive action against NASA influenced by NASA Egypt's Free Officers initially a secret society within the army were gaining more and more influence over the nationalistic masses in July 1958 two years after faisal visit to London the monarchy is overthrown and the King cruelly murdered marauding troops devastate the palace and also kill his son soon afterwards they murder the pro-western premier Nuri al-saeed shocked the members of the English colony leave Baghdad some had witnessed the barbarian atrocities the wife of an English officer describes what she saw and he said that the Crown Prince wasn't actually killed he was only wounded and he was immediately taken away and handed over to the mob to do what they wanted with and you know what did happen well yes they tore him to pieces they mutilated his body they cut his feet off it cut his head off his hands and then they hanged him for everyone to see from the mosque in the Main Street in Baghdad your hope of pure what heroin Lord to have not come yes the Arabs were delighted after the British left the country Arab her only less Logan was not Allah Robert Philip which means Arabian oil for the Arabs Arabic Arya the British themselves were to blame when they were too powerful and were too arrogant they couldn't tolerate any criticism English quickly the rebellious officers occupy the state radio station in Baghdad they hardly encounter resistance the leader of the coup General Abdul Qasim speaks to the people in a radio address which is also supposed to appease the audience abroad our revolution is a real reaction against tyranny and corruption our foreign policy is to work for peace and cooperate with the other nations our oil policy has been declared we will increase production and export toward markets what happened was when the when the the monarchy was overthrown and what are the institutions that the British had brought to Iraq they brought the monarchy they brought Parliament and they built the army and a modern Iraqi on that army turned against its so-called creators the British and turned against the government that the British had installed and but he threw away along with the monarchy it threw away Parliament and we no longer have we lost the Iraqi parliamentary experience was terminated in 1958 one of general Kasim's concerns was the iraq oil company which he began to nationalize but he wanted access to even more oil in June of 1961 he threatened to annex Kuwait military parades were supposed to illustrate his determination Kuwait had never been a part of Iraq for decades she had been a British protectorate and had just gained independence still as a protecting power London felt bound to her security commitments and increased her military presence this deterred Qasim even though most of the Arab nations had no significant military power they assured the Kuwaiti ruler al Sabbagh of their support they had money great britain did not she was going through another economic crisis and sought to solve her problems by devaluating the pound in 1967 the Labour government under Prime Minister Wilson hoped for an economic revival to no avail Wilson had no other choice but to give up the last position in the Mideast I made clear that following the evacuation of Aden our defence planning will be was based on a withdrawal of all our forces from our principal Far Eastern bases and from the Persian Gulf to take effect by the end of 1971 and if even with the strengthening of the industrial base which we are achieving we can no longer afford the role of world policeman equally we can no longer afford the role of World Bank only six thousand ground staff and a few flying squadrons were left in the Gulf matter of expense annually twelve million pounds too much for what was left of the empire an offer by the United Arab Emirates to come up for the costs was rejected by London her soldiers were no mercenaries in Iran the Shah was already waiting to fill the power vacuum Washington supported him in the region 58 percent of the world certified oil reserves were to be found I think the Shah was a very clever person very curious I knew him from 62 and I used to see him several times every year and we discuss things and at the very end when he was convinced by Kissinger that he will be the gender ma of the Gulf he became a bit arrogant and he continued Saudi Arabia was opposing a sharp increases in the price of oil but he was convinced that with the sharp increase in the price of oil he will make enough money to buy weapons the SHA love to hold military parades to demonstrate the power of his army and to show his weapons he was one of the best customers of the American arms industry in Teheran President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger promised the Shah extensive weapons supplies even though they knew that he had built up a despotic regime the discovery of oil in the Middle East has been not a blessing but a curse for those countries you know that is a saying which is often repeated in the United States no taxation without representation meaning that in order to levy taxes you have to permit some kind of elected assembly to to obtain the cooperation of the people in levying and collecting taxes no taxation without representation unfortunately the oil countries of the Middle East have demonstrated that the converse is also true no representation without taxation and since these governments have plenty of oil money they don't need to collect taxes from their people they therefore don't need to pay any attention to the goodwill of their people they can ill treat them and suppress them and brutalize them as much as they wish they have no need of popular support they have therefore no need of popular assemblies of any kind and in this respect I would say that the discovery of oil and the commercial exploitation of oil has been a disaster for the region as a whole in that it has enormous Lee strengthened the power of rule oh whatever kind of ruler it might be it was one of the largest parties in history in October 1971 the Shah issued invitations to join the festivities in the ancient city of Persepolis marking the foundation of the first Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great 2500 years previously Kings presidents and heads of state from 69 countries were invited the celebration banquet was delivered by maksim de Pury the whole party cost 200 million dollars the show included a parade of floats with historical figures dressed in costumes from the time of the great Persian dynasties to the time of the chars father at the alleged grave of Cyrus the shot of a theatrical oath Osiris great King King of Kings I the shine Shah of Iran will continue your work in his megalomania he had totally distance himself from his people eight years later the shine Shah was driven out of the country next week is testing and exams week discover how a leading school uses subtle revision techniques to help children do their best the key stage to national curriculum tests we investigate white cheating is on the increase and what can be done about it for all our videos and resources go to teachers dot TV slash assessment

Channel: theDossier

Views: 948,875

Rating: 4.6230016 out of 5

Keywords: oil, petroleum, Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, war, imperialism, Britain, America, United States

Id: 0ybsEhlT2DA

Length: 53min 18sec (3198 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/tedemang]

Wow, this one was really, really good.

I've just watched the first part and learned a lot of details that I haven't seen fully fleshed-out in most other doc's. Anyone else have a similar opinion of Part 2 and/or Part 3?