Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979

17
Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979
The end of the American Operation Eagle Claw


В previous article was told about the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the collapse of the secular regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Today we will talk about the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the Iranian embassy in London in 1980, the failed American Operation Eagle Claw and the successful British Operation Nimrod, about the fate of the last Shah of Iran. And also about modern Iran.



US Embassy Takeover


As we remember, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran even before he was officially removed from power. The new authorities of the former Shah in Iran sentenced him to death in absentia. From Egypt, he moved to the Bahamas, and then to Mexico, where he was diagnosed with cancer (lymphoma). Mohammad Reza Pahlavi decided to go to the United States for treatment. Meanwhile, Iran, to put it mildly, did not like this country, and now this hatred resulted in the famous storming of the American embassy in Tehran, which was seized on November 4, 1979. 66 diplomats were taken hostage. Six employees escaped, and were later secretly taken out of the country by Canadian diplomats. Another 13 hostages (women and blacks) were released on November 19-20, 1979. The rest were held for 444 days.

American diplomats held hostage:




The participants in the assault were radical students who called themselves "Khomeini's disciples." Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazzargan was shocked by their actions and, not finding understanding from Khomeini, he left his post.

The Americans responded by freezing Iranian assets and imposing an embargo on oil produced in that country, and in April 1980, they imposed a full economic embargo. Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States were severed.

The Failed Operation Eagle Claw


The capture of American diplomats in Tehran caused great damage to the international authority of the United States, but President Carter still did not dare to engage in direct military conflict. On his orders, preparations began for an operation to free the hostages, which was to be carried out by the special forces group "Delta Force". Its creator and commander was a veteran of the Vietnam War, Colonel Beckwith. Due to his penchant for adventurous (and far from always successful) actions in the American army, he was known by the somewhat ironic nickname "Charging Charlie".


Charles Alvin Beckwith in 1980.

Some believe that Carter's risky decision was influenced by the Soviet operation "Storm-333", during which a company of airborne troops and the KGB special forces groups "Thunder" and "Zenith" captured the well-fortified palace of President Hafizullah Amin in Afghanistan on December 27, 1979. US Secretary of State Syers Robert Vance strongly objected to the operation and eventually resigned.

On March 22, 1980, the American operation was given the code name "Eagle Claw". The task was initially set as quite difficult, because the special forces (118 people) still had to get to the place of the operation. It was planned that they would first be delivered from the Omani island of Masirah on military transport aircraft "Hercules" C-130 to the point "Desert-1" (an abandoned British airfield, 370 km from Tehran). Here they were supposed to transfer to refueled heavy transport helicopters Sea Stallio" ("Sea Stallion") RH-53D, flown from the aircraft carrier "Nimitz", and get to abandoned salt mines 50 miles from Tehran (point "Desert-2", 90 km from the capital of Iran). From there, within XNUMX hours, they were supposed to be transported by car to Tehran, using different routes.


Operation Eagle Claw plan on the map

They were to be joined by two former Iranian generals who knew the streets of the Iranian capital well. Three powerful but slow-moving AC-130 Gunships were allocated for fire support. And the helicopters were to fly to some “secret location #3” and wait for a signal. Having joined up at the embassy, ​​the Delta commandos were to free the hostages, and by that time the helicopters would fly to Tehran and land on the mission’s territory and the nearby stadium. Having taken the commandos and diplomats on board, they were to head to the abandoned Manzaria airfield, which, as expected, would by that time have already been captured by another unit – a company of rangers. And from there, C-141 military transport planes were to take everyone to an airbase in Egypt, friendly to the United States. The operation in Tehran was supported by Dick Meadows, who during the Vietnam War had been assigned to lead the operation to free American prisoners of war at the Son Tay camp near Hanoi. On November 22, 1970, his team landed at the camp – and found that the Americans had already been moved to another location.


Dick Meadows with a megaphone, which he was going to use to notify the liberated American prisoners of war about the evacuation.

Meadows entered Iran as Irish businessman Richard Keith. His underlings, one of whom was born in Iran and spoke Farsi, posed as West German businessmen. A US intelligence officer who wished to remain anonymous described the activities of Meadows' group:

"By working quietly and discreetly, and taking great personal risks to accomplish their mission, these men were able to gather and transmit accurate intelligence necessary to properly plan a rescue operation in a hostile environment. They were able to establish a mechanism for supporting the arriving rescue force. This included renting buildings and facilities…providing the vehicles necessary to move around the city, reconnoitring drop-off and evacuation sites, training reception teams and guides, and ultimately successfully evacuating all personnel when the arriving force was forced to abort the operation."

The operation looked so complicated that the Americans did not hesitate to request consultations from the Israeli Mossad, the British SAS and the West German military counterintelligence MAD (the Germans were responsible for planning actions in the city). In the winter of 1980, training began in the American state of Utah, where there was terrain reminiscent of the Dasht-e Kavir desert. It is curious that, following these exercises, the special forces received "good" ratings from British SAS specialists, and their commanders - "satisfactory". But Michael Calvert, one of the leaders of the British Special Air Service, told Beckwith at the time:

"I'm afraid your boys have too many muscles... It might affect their heads."

But the British recorded the following among helicopter pilots:complete lack of professional training" It was noted that at night they do not maintain formation and lose each other, which is not surprising, since the crews of the naval helicopters were trained only to sweep sea mines (using a large trawl lowered on a towing cable), and during daylight hours. It also turned out that the pilots of these helicopters had poorly mastered the navigation equipment and were not preparing the machines for flights in good faith (and there is no excuse for this). As for the Mossad representatives, they predicted the death of the special forces and hostages, as well as the loss of all the helicopters. However, the operation was not cancelled. It began on April 24, 1980: 8 American helicopters and 6 aircraft (three with special forces and three with fuel for refueling the helicopters) took off. According to some reports, a strike on Tehran and military bases was even planned, which was to be carried out by Corsair-2 carrier-based attack aircraft from the Nimitz and Coral Sea aircraft carriers.

As expected, the first to start acting up were the American helicopter pilots. One of these machines fell into the sea, the crew of another helicopter got lost and had a hard time returning to their aircraft carrier. The third helicopter almost crashed due to a hydraulic system failure. On the way, the Americans got caught in a sandstorm, but still made it to the Desert 1 airfield, next to which an Iranian bus with 40 passengers unexpectedly appeared - by agreement with Washington, it was decided to detain them and then temporarily take them out of the country. And then a tanker truck with gasoline drove up, which the Americans decided to destroy with grenade launchers - and a very spectacular and clearly visible column of flame shot up into the air. Seeing that everything was going wrong, one of the special forces soldiers by the name of Fitch then grimly joked:

"Welcome to World War III!"

Then one of the helicopters crashed into the Hercules with fuel for refueling - both machines exploded. The commandos, deciding that the point "Desert 1" was under enemy attack, opened fire indiscriminately, the helicopter pilots fled, abandoning their machines. Colonel Beckwith in a panic gave the order to cancel the operation, while the five abandoned helicopters were not destroyed, which, among other things, contained folders with secret documents, maps, codes, bundles of dollars and rials. All these machines were later introduced into the Iranian Air Force.


Two American Sikorsky RH-53D Sea Stallio helicopters at Desert 1 – burned out and abandoned


The remains of a C-130 military transport aircraft


Abandoned body of US special forces soldier

However, many believe that this was not the worst outcome of this operation: if it had continued, the Americans could have lost all their helicopters, and their pilots and special forces would probably have been killed or captured.

Thanks to the documents left behind, all local US agents were arrested in Tehran. But Dick Meadows and his people managed to leave Tehran - while all the efforts of the Iranian special services were focused on inspecting and studying the point "Desert 1", they calmly flew to Ankara.

But the Iranians who arrived at the Desert 1 point also made several mistakes. Abandoned American equipment was attacked from the air, and then a detachment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that arrived at the scene of the incident, several people were killed, including one of the high-ranking IRGC commanders.

As a result, the Americans lost 9 people, the Iranians – 7 (6 servicemen and a fuel truck driver). The material losses of the Americans amounted to 130 to 150 million dollars (one dollar in 1980 is equivalent to 3,83 dollars at the 2024 exchange rate). John Perkins in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” called Operation Eagle Claw

"the hammer that drove the final nail into the coffin of Carter's presidency."

As for the remaining American hostages, one of them was released on July 11, 1980, due to a serious illness, the rest – after long and difficult negotiations on January 20, 1981 (they spent 444 days in captivity). The Americans had to “unfreeze” Iranian accounts for 12 billion dollars (of which, according to a court decision, 9 billion went to compensate companies whose property was nationalized by the new Iranian authorities), lift sanctions and promise not to interfere in the internal affairs of this country. Algeria and Great Britain acted as intermediaries.


Demonstration to mark the anniversary of the US embassy takeover, 2022, Tehran

But what do you think? Already in the spring of 1986, some members of the US administration began to “protect” supplies in circumvention of sanctions weapons Iran during its war with Iraq. The funds received were used to finance Nicaraguan rebels (again, bypassing the ban of the US Congress) - the famous Iran-Contra deal. All according to Thomas Joseph Dunning (a British trade unionist and publicist), who wrote in one of his works in the mid-19th century:

"There is no crime that capital will not commit for the sake of 300% profit."

(This aphorism is often attributed to Karl Marx.)

In December 1992, the American participants in this scam were pardoned by US President George H.W. Bush.

Iranian Embassy in London Takeover


It should be said that one of the Iranian embassies abroad was also captured. This happened in London on April 30, 1980. The mission was attacked by six militants from the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan, created in 1979. At first, its leaders sided with Khomeini, but then they started an uprising in Khuzestan. The militants who broke into the embassy building took 26 people hostage, including strangers, such as a BBC correspondent and sound operator. The task of liberating the embassy was entrusted to servicemen of the elite 22nd SAS regiment, which inherited the motto of the creator of this special service, David Stirling:

"He who risks, wins."


David Stirling and his subordinates, 1942. He became the founder of the world's first private military company, Watchguard International

During Operation Nimrod on May 5, 1980, the regiment's fighters successfully liberated the mission building, killing five of the six terrorists (the remaining one was captured), killing one hostage and wounding two. Margaret Thatcher decided to show everyone the effectiveness of the British special forces and was so confident of success that she allowed the BBC to broadcast the assault live on TV. At the same time, she "slapped the Americans in the face" for failing in their special operation. True, the SAS fighters tore the building apart so much that its repairs were only completed in 5.


Troopers from 22 SAS storm the Iranian embassy, ​​5 May 1980


M. Thatcher and SAS fighters after the operation to free the Iranian embassy

The Fate of the Last Shah of Iran


The terminally ill Mohammad Reza Pahlavi traveled from the United States to Panama and from there to Egypt, where his spleen was removed. He died there on July 27, 1980, at the age of 60. President Anwar Sadat ordered a state funeral for him, and mourning was declared in Egypt. In addition to Sadat, former US President Richard Nixon and former King Constantine II of Greece were present at the funeral. A book written by the Shah in exile in French, “Answer stories».

On September 22, 1980, the Iran-Iraq War began, which these countries waged for 8 years - until August 20, 1988. In this article, we will not touch on this topic: a short story would be a profanation, and there is not enough time and space for a detailed one. Perhaps I will try to tell about it in a separate article. Now let's talk about the modern Islamic Republic of Iran.

Modern Iran


As you remember from first article of this cycle, during the period of modernization carried out in Iran by the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, irritation grew in the country over rapid Westernization and high dependence on Western countries, primarily the United States. Against the backdrop of an economic crisis, this led to a revolution and the flight of the Shah. Attempts at radical Islamization met resistance in large cities, which were brutally suppressed. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction grew in society over the excessively strict demands of moral guardians and Sharia courts, which sometimes resulted in mass protests, which were described in previous articleThus, in September 2022, after the death of 22-year-old Mahsi Amini, who was beaten by police officers, 551 people died during protests, including 54 police officers.

The Iranian authorities, on the one hand, suppress these protests, but are also forced to make concessions. In 2017, a law was passed lifting all restrictions on women receiving higher education, and girls immediately took advantage of this right: now, in some Iranian universities, the number of female students among students reaches 65%.

It should be noted that state funding of the education system in Iran, despite sanctions, currently reaches almost 5% of GDP, while in Qatar, for example, it is only 3,2%. In Russia, state spending on education in 2022 amounted to 3,5% of GDP plus 0,5% non-state spending (i.e. education at the expense of parents). In Italy - 3,8% and 0,6%, respectively, in the UK - 4,2% and 2,2%, in the USA - 4,1% and 1,9%, in South Korea - 4% and 1,3%.

In many countries around the world, and now in Russia as well, a huge problem is disrespect for teachers and lack of discipline in the classroom. School teachers are now powerless and have no way to influence students who behave defiantly, who disturb their classmates and often literally disrupt classes. Since the teacher is forced to focus on the weakest student in the class when presenting the material, the level of education falls - and therefore wealthy parents are forced to enroll their offspring in private schools or pay for regular tutoring. In Iran, such a problem does not exist, since parents are responsible for supervising their children. Bad behavior, obstruction of the educational process, and even systematically receiving unsatisfactory grades are grounds for imposing a fine, but theoretically, in some particularly neglected cases, one of the parents can even be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one to three years. As a result, the level of education in Iran is so high that universities in Europe and the United States, which offer them free education and scholarships, try to lure the best senior students. The brain drain in modern Iran is becoming a serious problem.

By the way, French and German are most often offered as foreign languages ​​in Iranian schools. In recent years, due to the expansion of economic ties between Iran and Russia, Russian has also become popular.

Currently, the Iranian authorities welcome women's participation in the country's economic life. The reason is the decline in the birth rate. In 2020, this figure was 1,84, while to maintain the current population without taking into account migration, it must be at least 2,1. Due to the labor shortage, back in 2016, Advisor to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security Moslem Hani said that within 10 years, about 45 percent of the Iranian labor market would be occupied by women. But even in 2023, the share of women among those employed in Iran was only 14,38%.

On the other hand, the government calls on girls to get married no later than 16-17 years old, there are proposals to introduce a tax on childlessness and a ban on childless people holding leadership positions. The wives of men from the Basij unit (one of the five "forces" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) are required to be an example for other Iranian women, and not just give birth, but raise at least five children (after all, some of the children born may not live to adulthood).

Since the 90s, Iran's foreign policy has become more pragmatic and balanced. However, in the 2000s, due to suspicions by leaders of a number of Western countries that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, new sanctions were imposed on the country. Bypassing them, unmarked Iranian tankers began pumping oil at sea to ships of other countries, most often the UAE or Malaysia. Many goods, including smartphones, are supplied to Iran under "parallel import" schemes. In 2015, some of the sanctions were lifted in exchange for limiting the nuclear program, but in 2018 this deal was canceled by US President Donald Trump. This led to an acceleration of inflation - up to 30-40%. As a result, in 2020, the process of denomination of the national currency was launched, which should lose four zeros and change its name from rial to toman.

In total, over 4 different sanctions have been imposed on Iran since the Islamic Revolution (after the start of the CBO, this seemingly unshakable record was broken by Russia). Nevertheless, Iran continued to develop, although not as dynamically as it could have. For example, this state is one of six countries capable of independently producing steam and gas turbines. In 2019, mining was legalized in Iran, but “miners” are required to sell bitcoins to the Central Bank. However, not everyone follows this rule: many use cryptocurrency to buy sanctioned goods abroad.

Despite everything, the Iranian economy is showing growth, which by the end of 2023 was 5,7%. The largest buyers of Iranian goods are traditionally China, the UAE, India and Turkey. Oil is mainly supplied to China, India, the UAE, Venezuela and Syria, gas - to Iraq, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Cars, metals (steel, copper, zinc, aluminum), mineral fertilizers, cement, plastics, ceramic tiles, textiles, nuts, vegetables and fruits are also supplied to other countries.

Russia currently buys auto parts, metalworking machines, pumps, and polystyrene from Iran.

Iran mainly buys food from our country, but in 2024 a large batch of civilian helicopters was delivered.

Recently, international tourism has begun to develop, albeit slowly. The potential of this industry is simply enormous, because according to official UNESCO data, Iran ranks third in the world in terms of the number of preserved historical monuments, second only to Egypt and Italy. Incidentally, it is in this country that the largest collection of jewelry in the world is located.
17 comments
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  1. +4
    31 January 2025 06: 12
    The crew of another helicopter got lost and had difficulty returning to their aircraft carrier
    Several years ago, a Mi-8 helicopter got lost in Kazakhstan and in order to clarify its location, it landed on the road and began to find out its location from drivers. Well, an American crew in a foreign and hostile country would not have been able to do that wink
  2. +6
    31 January 2025 06: 24
    Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan, a strange organization, it seems as if it was created to seize the Iranian embassy in London. Created in 1979, ceased to exist in 1980
  3. +6
    31 January 2025 07: 21
    >Russia currently buys auto parts, metalworking machines, pumps, and polystyrene from Iran. Iran mainly buys food from our country

    It turns out that Iran is a more developed country!
    1. -1
      31 January 2025 08: 54
      Of course. Putin and Medvedev have been doing the same thing for decades as the oligarchs they protect: they have been taking all their money abroad and being proud of the fact that their "gold and foreign exchange reserves" are growing. They don't care that Russian industry is going into decline without this money.
    2. Fat
      +4
      31 January 2025 09: 54
      The structure of Russian exports to Iran includes, in particular:

      Food products and agricultural raw materials. In 2023, their share in the export structure amounted to 81,1% ($2,2 billion).
      Machinery, equipment and vehicles. Share: 8,8% ($240 million).
      Wood and pulp and paper products. Share: 5,6% ($152,4 million).
      Chemical industry products. Share - 1,8% ($49,4 million). 45
      Metals and metal products. Share: 1,3% ($19,1 million).
      Russia also supplies petroleum products and crude oil to Iran.

      So there is no oil in Iran?!
      Trade volumes with Iran are currently negligible, to be fair.
      1. +3
        31 January 2025 11: 14
        So there is no oil in Iran?!

        It's just that Russia is now selling oil at such a discount that it is more profitable for Iran to buy it than to produce its own. As is the case for the Emirates, which also buy Russian oil.
        1. 0
          31 January 2025 11: 21
          The saddest thing is that the oligarchs are now selling off non-renewable natural resources at bargain prices, effectively robbing future generations. And this is despite the fact that Putin robbed our generation, meekly handing over to his "partners" through Nabiullina huge funds that could have been used to carry out a large-scale modernization of our country's infrastructure.
        2. Fat
          +1
          31 January 2025 19: 38
          You have simplified everything. The Saudis and the UAE are taking Russian oil on a swap (exchange). The trick didn't work with Iran, they don't have the necessary infrastructure, and their own Iranian discount turned out to be greater than the Russian one. The deal was announced, but in fact, oil was not delivered to Iran in the declared volumes. It was a political demarche, nothing more.
  4. +6
    31 January 2025 07: 38
    Thank you for an interesting series of articles!
    Have a nice day comrades, fortunately Saturday is just around the corner!!!
    1. +2
      31 January 2025 11: 31
      Saturday is inevitable, but we still have to survive the evening of Tyapnitsa drinks and this, damn.... No.
  5. +1
    31 January 2025 08: 51
    A huge problem is disrespect for teachers and lack of discipline in the classroom. School teachers are now powerless and have no way to influence students who behave defiantly

    This is a real problem created by liberals with the connivance of the same Putin. A teacher is by definition an authoritarian profession. What is happening now in many schools is a violation of the right of normal children to receive an education. We need to restore order, "they are mothers" should not have the right to kick open the door to the teachers' room. But they should pay large fines for every violation of school discipline by their children.
  6. +5
    31 January 2025 08: 56
    Thanks for the interesting articles! Valery, are you planning anything else for the near future?
    1. VLR
      +5
      31 January 2025 09: 31
      Still, as I promised in this article - about the Iran-Iraq war. And then we will abruptly change the topic. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. smile
  7. +4
    31 January 2025 08: 58
    Iran after the Islamic revolution is a country with radical Islamists, which really messed us up in Afghanistan.
    1. +3
      31 January 2025 09: 36
      If someone had said three years ago that Iran would be Russia's closest ally, they probably would have called in a special team from a mental hospital laughing
      I remember Medvedev did not give Iran the already paid for S-300. Such a bending over to the Americans that no one appreciated.
      1. +6
        31 January 2025 09: 39
        He is not our ally, but a temporary fellow traveler, because of our weakness, who never ceases to consider us a little Satan.
        1. +1
          1 February 2025 08: 18
          He is not our ally, but a temporary fellow traveler.

          China is also not a "very" ally. As is India. They take advantage of the moment and rob under the guise of trade.