British Foreign Policy Towards The I.R. Iran With Special Reference To The Two Main British Governing Parties: 2000-2015
Having decided to proceed with the decolonisation process both the Labour government of 1945-51, and the Conservative governments of 1951-55, 1955-57, and 1957-63, pursued the policy involving the American in the defence of Western Europe and Britain against the Soviet threat. Taking into account too, after the Second World War, the concept of a ‘common language and heritage’, or ‘Special Relationship’, which was first spoken by Churchill in a speech in Fulton Missouri, when he visited the USA in March 1946 on a private visit. The phrase ‘special relationship’ was a tool of diplomacy for harnessing a rising inexperienced giant, America, to the achievement of British needs. Though the Americans, both in mode of thought and origins are substantially foreign, it could be said that their rulers are often Anglo-Saxon and share the political ideas of Britain, and, therefore, persuading them successfully to accept British point of view would mean the dominance of British views in all international matters. Bevin, the British Labour Foreign Secretary, was actively in favor of American involvement in the defence against any foreign aggression. Britain’s economic weakness ever since the dissolution of the British Empire, and American dominance replacing, Pax Britannica since World War Two, until now, even after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the twenty first century, has given her a handicap in keeping up with military, and especially atomic weapon technology in terms of quantity. Thus, Britain has had to come into alliance with the Americans both for economic and defensive reasons. Nonetheless, ‘‘the two English-speaking countries began to realise that their close co-operation was essential to world peace.”18
This has, incidentally been, evident in the contemporary time ie. The close Anglo-American co-operation in the Persian Gulf, after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1978/9, the 1990/91 war in Iraq, the Balkan crisis of the 1990s, the war in Afghanistan in 2001, onwards, and the 2003 war in Iraq until the present time.
Now that, briefly, the Anglo-American Special Relationship, has been touched on, we can resume with our investigation, and analysis of the British Labour government’s policies, while in Office, until 2010 towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Anglo-Iranian relations never ran smooth, at least throughout the contemporary history for various reasons let alone since the Islamic revolution in Iran, even when full diplomatic relations at the highest level are re-established, and operational tensions of different magnitudes exist. There have always been ‘bips’ such as the case of the fifteen Royal Navy personnel in 2007, or prior to that, the 2006 Gholhak dispute, about the ownership of a compound in north of Tehran, by the British Embassy, and so forth.
Despite the overall improvement in relationship between the United Kingdom, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, at least until 2005-6, nevertheless, there has been a deterioration of relationship between the two countries, most particularly concerning the nuclear standoff between the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the United States.
