Conspiracy theories about the Iranian Revolution

Conspiracy theory about the Iranian Revolution

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The Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced by an Islamist government led by Ruhollah Khomeini, has been the subject of conspiracy theories alleging Western involvement, in particular, that the United States and the United Kingdom secretly opposed the Shah because his White Revolution and Iran's growing independence was unfavorable to their interests in Iranian petroleum.[1] In his own memoirs, Answer to History, the Shah alleges that Western forces most prominently the United Kingdom, the United States, and Big Oil conspired against him all for their own reasons while most notably, he claims due to his manipulation of oil prices.[2]

Khomeini rejected the charges,[3] claiming it was the Shah who was a Western "agent" who had prevented the establishment of Islamic government in Iran until the revolution.[4]

## Background

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The US State Department drew criticism for doing little to communicate with Tehran or discourage protest and opposition to the Shah. The intelligence community within the US has also been subject due to criticism particularly for reporting to President Jimmy Carter "Iran is not in a revolutionary or even a 'pre-revolutionary' situation." President Jimmy Carter was also blamed for his lack of support for the Shah while failing to deter opposition. Within Iran, the revolution is widely believed to be a British plot to overthrow the Shah. This theory would come to be known as the 1979 Iranian Revolution Conspiracy Theory. The theory was supported by the Shah of Iran who believed his increasing control over oil markets and his 1973 nationalization of Iranian oil prompted international oil companies to unseat him.[5]

The Shah held a low opinion of the mullahs that took control of Iran and believed they could not invoke unrest in Iran without a great deal of foreign support. In 1979, big oil contracts for Iranian oil were due to expire, however, the oil companies did not choose to resign. The Shah perceived the withdrawal of oil companies as a threat to him. Finally, the Shah believed the British and Americans were out to remove him due to his 1973 oil price hike in order to replace him with a new non-nationalistic regime.[6][page needed]

International policies pursued by the Shah in order to increase national income by remarkable increases in the price of oil through his leading role in the Organization of the Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) have been stressed as a major cause for a shift of Western interests and priorities, and for a reduction of their support for him reflected in a critical position of Western politicians and media, especially of the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter regarding the question of human rights in Iran, and in strengthened economic ties between the United States of America and Saudi Arabia in the 1970s.[7]

## Claims

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### Claimed British involvement

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According to a book by F. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, a conspiracy to overthrow the Shah was hatched by the British and Americans in 1978 coinciding with the Iranian Revolution in the aftermath of the collapse of negotiations to renew a twenty-five year-old agreement between the Shah's government and British Petroleum known as the Consortium Agreement of 1954.[8]

### Claims by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi himself asserted that, "If you lift up Khomeini's beard, you will find MADE IN ENGLAND written under his chin," in the later days of his reign as monarch.[9] This statement by Pahlavi was an adaptation of another saying, "If you lift a mullah's beard, you will find 'Made in Britain' stamped on his chin."[10]

Engdahl quotes Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as blaming not the British but the Americans for his overthrow:

> I did not know it then – perhaps I did not want to know – but it is clear to me now that the Americans wanted me out. Clearly this is what the human rights advocates in the State Department wanted … What was I to make of the Administration's sudden decision to call former U.S. Under Secretary of State George Ball to the White House as an adviser on Iran? … Ball was among those Americans who wanted to abandon me and ultimately my country.[8]

### 1978 Ettela'at article

[edit]

On 7 January 1978, the state news agency Ettela'at published an article accusing Khomeini of being a British agent and a "mad Indian poet."[11][12] The article claimed that Khomeini's Islamist faction had joined forces with communist dissidents to oppose the regime's modernization project, and that Khomeini's opposition to the Shah was prompted and paid for by British oil interests.[13]

Supporters of Khomeini, outraged by the article, organized violent demonstrations in response.[14]

## Beliefs of Iranian public

[edit]

BBC Persian journalist Hossein Shahidi has talked about "the deep-rooted belief" among Iranians "that Britain is behind every move in Iran," and in particular that the BBC radio is "credited with, or accused of, having brought about the downfall of" both Pahlavi kings, Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi whose thirty-seven-year rule was brought to an end by the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79.[15]

Many Iranians believe that the West feared the economic progress of Iran and saw the Shah as an dangerous threat to their interests.

A survey of Iranian expatriates in Southern California found the leading explanation for the 1979 revolution to be foreign Western plots, as did a recent[when?] survey in Isfahan.[16][17][18]

## See also

[edit]

* 1980 October Surprise theory
* Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden
* Iran–Contra affair
* Iran–United Kingdom relations
* Iranian Revolution
* Jimmy Carter's engagement with Ruhollah Khomeini
* Ruhollah Khomeini

## References

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1. ^ Goodgame, Peter (11 August 2002). "The Globalists and the Islamists". Redmoonrising.
2. ^ Pahlavi, Mohammadreza (1980). Answer to History. Stein and Day. p. 23.
3. ^ Khomeini: Elite thought clerics obey U.K orders (archived link)
4. ^ Khomeini, Islamic Government, (1981), (p.139, also p.27-28, p.34, p.38). (Quote: "The British imperialists penetrated the countries of the East more than 300 years ago. Being knowledgeable about all aspects of these countries, they drew up elaborate plans for assuming control of them". p.139)
5. ^ Maloney, Suzanne (24 January 2019). "1979: Iran and America". Op-Ed. The Brookings Institution.
6. ^ Cooper, Andrew. The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. New York: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 9780805098976. OCLC 922169321.
7. ^ Andrew Scott Cooper (2011). The Oil Kings: How the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4391-5517-8.
8. ^ a b Schroeder, Ernst (10 March 2006). "What Really Happed to the Shah of Iran". Payvand. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011.
9. ^ Pipes, Daniel (15 September 1996). The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780312162542.
10. ^ Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader, Manouchehr Ganji, ISBN 0-275-97187-2, page 37
11. ^ Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, page 77, ISBN 0-8078-5588-X
12. ^ Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran, Daniel Brumberg, University of Chicago Press, 2001, page 92 ISBN 0-226-07758-6
13. ^ [Ettela'at January 7, 1978, 7; republished with minor punctuation changes in Shirkhani, Ali, Hamaseh-ye 19 Dey, (The Uprising of January 9 [1978]) Tehran: Entesharat-e Merkez-e Asnad-e Enqelab-e Eslami, 1998, 233-236. Quoted in Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, (2004), p.33
14. ^ U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies, Iran. The Coming of the Revolution. December 1987.
15. ^ Hossein Shahidi. 'BBC Persian Service 60 years on.' The Iranian. September 24, 2001
16. ^ [interviews with the families of Iran-Iraq War Casualties, according to a sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, December 20, 2002, translated by BBC Worldwide Monitoring.] quoted in Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, (2004), p.13
17. ^ [Amuzegar, Jahangir, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991, p.79-96
Daneshvar, Parviz, Revolution in Iran, St. Martin's Press, 1996, p.94, 126
Moshiri, Farrokh, The State and Social Revolution in Iran, NY, Peter Lang, 1985, p.220] quoted in Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, (2004), p.13
18. ^ [Hakimfar, Bahram Bob `The Downfall of Late King Muhammad Reza Pahlavi: View of the Iranian Community in Southern California` Ph. D. dissertation, U.S. International University

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Iran–United Kingdom relations

Diplomatic posts|

* Embassy of Iran, London
* Ambassadors of Iran to the United Kingdom
* Embassy of the United Kingdom, Tehran
* Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Iran
* Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602)
* Persian embassy to Europe (1609–1615)

Diplomacy|

* Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1801
* Treaty of Paris (1857)
* Reuter concession
* D'Arcy Concession
* Anglo-Russian Convention
* Anglo-Persian Agreement
* Tehran Conference
* P5+1
* Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

Conflicts|

* Anglo-Persian War
* Persian Campaign
* Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
* British military network in Iran
* Iran–Iraq War
* British support for Iraq

Incidents|

* Anglo-Persian capture of Ormuz
* British occupation of Bushehr
* Tobacco Protest
* Zainab Pasha
* 1921 Persian coup d'état
* Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. case
* 1953 Iranian coup d'état
* Nationalization of the Iranian oil industry
* Abadan Crisis
* Timeline
* Iranian Revolution
* Guadeloupe Conference
* Conspiracy theory
* Iranian Embassy siege
* Salman Rushdie
* Satanic Verses controversy
* 2004 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel
* 2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel
* 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran
* 2011–2012 Strait of Hormuz dispute
* 2018 attack on the Iranian Embassy in London

Individuals|

* Kameel Ahmady
* Anoosheh Ashoori
* Roger Cooper
* Abbas Edalat
* Arthur Edwards
* Kamal Foroughi
* Ghoncheh Ghavami
* Fowzi Badavi Nejad
* Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht
* Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Related|

* Anglo-Persian Oil Company
* Bahrain province
* BBC Persian
* East India Company
* Imperial Bank of Persia
* Persian Gulf Residency
* Rhum gasfield
* Gholhak Garden
* Tehran War Cemetery
* Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship
* Old fox
* Great Game
* The New Great Game

Category:Iran–United Kingdom relations

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Ruhollah Khomeini

Politics|

* 1963 demonstrations in Iran
* Life in exile
* 1978 Qom protest
* 1978 Tabriz protests
* Neauphle-le-Château
* Return to Iran
* Iranian Revolution
* Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution
* Cultural Revolution
* Supreme Council
* Council of the Islamic Revolution
* Islamic Revolutionary Court
* Interim Government
* 1979 Referendum
* Engagement with Jimmy Carter
* Iranian Revolution conspiracy theory
* America can't do a damn thing against us
* Supreme Leader of Iran
* Iran–Iraq War
* Israeli support
* The Satanic Verses controversy

Positions|

* American Islam
* Anti-Zionism
* Shiite clericalism
* Death to America
* Great Satan
* Little Satan
* Sex segregation
* compulsory hijab
* Islamic democracy
* Imam's Line
* Letter to Gorbachev
* Khomeini's 8-article command

Books|

* Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (Velayat-e faqih)
* Tahrir al-Wasilah
* Kashf al-Asrar
* Forty Hadith of Ruhullah Khomeini
* Islam and Revolution
* The Greatest Jihad

Family|

* Khadijeh Saqafi (wife)
* Mostafa Khomeini (son)
* Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini (daughter)
* Farideh Mostafavi Khomeini (daughter)
* Ahmad Khomeini (son)
* Hussein Khomeini (grandson)
* Hassan Khomeini (grandson)
* Zahra Eshraghi (granddaughter)
* Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi (grandfather)

Related|

* Jamaran Hussainiya
* Mausoleum
* Death and state funeral
* Alef-Laam Khomeini
* Fajr decade
* Refah School
* Homafaran Allegiance
* Imam Khomeini International Airport
* Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order

Category

* v
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Conspiracy theories

List of conspiracy theories

Overview

| Core topics|

* Antiscience
* Cabals
* deep state
* éminence grise
* power behind the throne
* Civil / Criminal / Political conspiracies
* Conspiracy
* Crisis actors
* Deception
* Dystopia
* Espionage
* Global catastrophe scenarios
* Hidden message
* Pseudohistory
* Pseudoscience
* Secrecy
* Secret societies
* Urban legends and myths

|

Psychology|

* Attitude polarization
* Cognitive dissonance
* Communal reinforcement
* Confirmation bias
* Denialism
* Locus of control
* Manipulation
* Mass psychogenic illness
* moral panics
* Paranoia
* Psychological projection

Astronomy and outer space

* 2012 phenomenon
* Nibiru cataclysm
* Ancient astronauts
* Apollo Moon landings
* Flat Earth
* Hollow Earth
* Hollow Moon
* Reptilians

| UFOs|

* Alien abduction
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* Black Knight satellite
* Cryptoterrestrial / Extraterrestrial / Interdimensional hypothesis
* Dulce Base
* Estimate of the Situation (1948)
* Lake Michigan Triangle
* MJ-12
* Men in black
* Nazi UFOs
* Die Glocke
* Project Serpo

| Hoaxes|

* Dundy County (1884)
* Maury Island (1947)
* Roswell (1947)
* Twin Falls (1947)
* Aztec, New Mexico (1949)
* Southern England (1967)
* Ilkley Moor (1987)
* Gulf Breeze (1987–88)
* Alien autopsy (1995)
* Morristown (2009)

|

Deaths and disappearances

| Assassination /
suicide theories|

* Zachary Taylor (1850)
* Louis Le Prince (1890)
* Lord Kitchener (1916)
* Tom Thomson (1917)
* Władysław Sikorski (1943)
* Benito Mussolini (1945)
* Adolf Hitler (1945)
* Subhas Chandra Bose (1945)
* Johnny Stompanato (1958)
* Marilyn Monroe (1962)
* John F. Kennedy (1963)
* Lee Harvey Oswald (1963)
* Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
* Harold Holt (1967)
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
* Robert F. Kennedy (1968)
* Salvador Allende (1973)
* Aldo Moro (1978)
* Renny Ottolina (1978)
* Pope John Paul I (1978)
* Airey Neave (1979)
* Olof Palme (1986)
* Zia-ul-Haq (1988)
* GEC-Marconi scientists (1980s–90s)
* Turgut Özal (1993)
* Vince Foster (1993)
* Kurt Cobain (1994)
* Yitzhak Rabin (1995)
* Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)
* Alois Estermann (1998)
* Nepalese royal family (2001)
* Yasser Arafat (2004)
* Benazir Bhutto (2007)
* Osama bin Laden (2011)
* Hugo Chávez (2013)
* Seth Rich (2016)
* Alejandro Castro (2018)
* Jeffrey Epstein (2019)
* Sushant Singh Rajput (2020)
* John McAfee (2021)

|

Accidents / disasters|

* Mary Celeste (1872)
* RMS Titanic (1912)
* Great Kantō earthquake (1923)
* Lynmouth Flood (1952)
* Dyatlov Pass (1959)
* Lost Cosmonauts (1950s–60s)
* JAT Flight 367 (1972)
* United Air Lines Flight 553 (1972)
* South African Airways Flight 295 (1987)
* Khamar-Daban (1993)
* MS Estonia (1994)
* TWA Flight 800 (1996)
* EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014)

Other cases|

* Joan of Arc (1431)
* Yemenite children (1948–54)
* Elvis Presley (1977)
* Jonestown (1978)

Body double hoax|

* Paul McCartney
* Avril Lavigne
* Vladimir Putin
* Melania Trump

Energy, environment

* Agenda 21
* California drought manipulation
* Climate change denial
* false theories
* Free energy suppression
* HAARP
* Red mercury

False flag allegations

* USS Maine (1898)
* RMS Lusitania (1915)
* Reichstag fire (1933)
* Pearl Harbor (1941)
* USS Liberty (1967)
* Lufthansa Flight 615 (1972)
* Widerøe Flight 933 (1982)
* KAL Flight 007 (1983)
* Mozambican presidential jet (1986)
* Pan Am Flight 103 (1988)
* Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
* 9/11 attacks (2001)
* advance knowledge
* WTC collapse
* Madrid train bombing (2004)
* London bombings (2005)
* Smolensk air disaster (2010)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014)
* Denial of the 7 October attacks (2023)

Gender and sexuality

* Alpha / beta males
* Anti-LGBTQ
* anti-gender movement
* Chemicals
* drag panic
* gay agenda
* gay Nazis myth
* HIV/AIDS stigma
* United States
* Homintern
* Lavender scare
* Recruitment
* Grooming
* litter box hoax
* Transvestigation
* Finger pinching
* GamerGate
* Ideology in incel communities
* Larries / Gaylors
* Satanic panic
* Soy and masculinity

Health

* 5G misinformation
* Anti-vaccination
* autism
* MMR
* Thiomersal
* in chiropractic
* misinformation
* Aspartame
* Big Pharma
* Chemtrails
* COVID-19
* Ivermectin
* lab leak
* vaccines
* turbo cancer
* in Canada / Philippines / United States
* Ebola
* Electronic harassment
* Germ theory denialism
* GMOs
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* origins theories
* oral polio AIDS hypothesis
* Lepers' plot
* Medbeds
* SARS (2003)
* Water fluoridation
* Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning

Race, religion and/or ethnicity

* Bhagwa Love Trap
* CERN ritual hoax
* COVID-19 and xenophobia
* Freemasons
* French Revolution [fr]
* Gas chambers for Poles in Warsaw (1940s)
* German POWs post-WWII
* Priory of Sion
* Product labeling
* Halal
* Kosher
* Tartarian Empire
* War against Islam
* White genocide

| Antisemitic|

* Andinia Plan
* Blood libel
* Cohen Plan
* Doctors' plot
* during the Black Death
* Epsilon Team
* George Soros
* Holocaust denial
* Trivialization
* International Jewish conspiracy
* Committee of 300
* Cultural Bolshevism / Jewish Bolshevism
* Żydokomuna
* Judeo-Masonic plot
* The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
* World War II
* Z.O.G.
* Judeopolonia
* Killing of Jesus
* Kalergi Plan
* New World Order
* Rothschilds
* Stab-in-the-back myth

|

Christian / Anti-Christian|

* Anti-Catholic
* Jesuits
* Popish Plot
* Vatican
* Bible
* Giuseppe Siri

Islamophobic|

* Counter-jihad
* Bihar human sacrifice
* Eurabia
* Great Replacement
* Love jihad
* Proposed "Islamo-leftism" inquiry
* Trojan Horse scandal

Genocide denial /
Denial of mass killings|

* Armenian
* Bangladesh
* Bosnian
* Cambodian
* The Holocaust
* Holodomor
* Nanjing
* Rwandan
* Sayfo
* Serbs during WWII

Regional

| Asia|

* India
* Cow vigilante violence
* Greater Bangladesh
* Pakistan
* Jinnahpur
* Philippines
* Tallano gold
* South Korea
* Finger-pinching
* Thailand
* Finland Plot

|

Americas
(outside the United States)|

* Argentina
* Andinia Plan
* Canada
* Avro Arrow cancellation
* Leuchter report
* Peru
* Casa Matusita
* Venezuela
* Daktari Ranch affair
* Golpe Azul

Middle East / North Africa|

* In the Arab world
* 10 agorot
* Cairo fire
* Israel-related animal theories
* Iran
* Western-backed Iranian Revolution
* Israel
* Pallywood

Russia|

* Alaska payment
* Dulles' Plan
* Golden billion
* Petrograd Military Organization
* Rasputin
* Ukraine bioweapons

Turkey|

* 2016 coup attempt
* Ergenekon
* Operation Sledgehammer
* Gezi Park protests
* Sèvres syndrome
* Üst akıl

Other European|

* Euromyth
* Georgia
* Global War Party
* Ireland
* German Plot
* Italy
* Itavia Flight 870
* Lithuania
* Statesmen
* Roman Republic
* First Catilinarian conspiracy
* Spain
* Mano Negra affair
* Sweden
* Lilla Saltsjöbadsavtalet
* UK
* Clockwork Orange plot
* Elm Guest House
* Harold Wilson
* Voting pencil

United States|

* Barack Obama
* citizenship
* religion
* parentage
* "Obamagate" / Spygate
* Biden–Ukraine
* Black helicopters
* CIA and JFK
* CIA assistance to bin Laden
* Clinton body count
* Cultural Marxism
* Election denial movement
* FBI secret society
* FEMA camps
* Georgia Guidestones
* Jade Helm 15
* Montauk Project
* Philadelphia Experiment
* Pizzagate
* The Plan
* Project Azorian
* QAnon
* Pastel
* incidents
* Saddam–al-Qaeda
* Sandy Hook (2012)
* Springfield pet-eating hoax
* Trump–Ukraine
* "Vast right-wing conspiracy"
* Vietnam War
* POW/MIA issue / Stab-in-the-back myth

| 2020 election|

* Italygate
* "Pence Card"
* Maricopa County ballot audit
* Stop the Steal

|

Other

* Dead Internet theory
* NESARA/GESARA
* New Coke
* Phantom time / New chronology
* Shadow government claims
* Bilderberg
* Illuminati
* synarchism
* Shakespearean authorship

| Pseudolaw|

* Admiralty law
* Freeman on the land movement
* Redemption movement
* Sovereign citizens
* Strawman theory
* Tax protesters

|

Satirical|

* Acre
* Bielefeld
* Birds Aren't Real
* Li's field
* Ted Cruz–Zodiac Killer meme

See also

* Argument from ignorance
* Conspiracy Encyclopedia
* Conspiracy fiction
* Conspirituality
* Dogma
* pseudoskepticism
* Falsifiability
* Fringe science
* Historical negationism
* Online youth radicalization
* Paranormal
* Prejudice
* hate speech
* Radicalization
* Science by press conference
* Superstition

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