British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.
Great Britain,
access to the oil reserves, and stable conditions for its
production, in the Persian Gulf in the context of the rising power of the
United States. As will be argued in Chapter Six, to protect British
interests in the Persian Gulf for economic and defensive reasons Britain in
co-operation with the United States, as she was the only country which could
withstand the Soviet Union and communist pressure, prevented the Soviet
Union from reaching the oil reserves of the Persian Gulf. The United States
Government was of the opinion that developing close economic and political
relations with Iran, the most powerful state in the Persian Gulf, with its
huge population and industrialisation programme, would serve Western
interests better. Direct rule in the American view, in an area as
strategically crucial as the Persian Gulf with its huge oil reserves, could
potentially lead to confrontation with the Soviet Union. The British
Government’s view on the defence of the Persian Gulf was also similar to
that of the United States. The British view was that the armed forces of
Iran should have capabilities beyond those of internal security. As it will
be shown in Chapter Six, Iran was to be given aid and arms in the role of
the buffer zone between the threat posed by the Soviet Union, and the
oil-rich Persian Gulf.
Chapter One will analyse
British interests in the Persian Gulf. Following
this a brief
historical account of the relationship between Britain and Iran
will be given, explaining Iran’s significance for Britain, the role in the
United Kingdom’s strategic thinking, due to its crucial position, for the
protection of the Indian subcontinent against any threat posed by France,
and later Russia. Important as it was, Iran for Britain, the discovery of
its huge oil reserves led to the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company, and turned Iran into a strategic asset for the British Empire, for
more than half of the twentieth century. In Chapter One an immediate
background to this will be given. In 1951the Iranian Government nationalised
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
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