Washington Post : Britian Bashing is Iran’s ‘Flavor of the Month’
It’s interesting that Bahrampour points to the dual role of the United States in regards to talks surrounding a nuclear Iran and the unforeseen concessions and charm of now United States President, Barack Hussein Obama, as possible reasons for the Iranian emphasis on the ‘evils’ of the British:
Since Iranians took to the streets to protest the official vote results, the government has expelled two British diplomats, kicked out the longtime British Broadcasting Corp. bureau chief, and arrested British Embassy staff members, accusing them of fomenting the unrest. Last week, an adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Britain “worse than America” for its alleged interference in Iran‘s post-election affairs.
Although complaints about British meddling are enjoying a resurgence, they are hardly new. For many Iranians, especially those whose memories go back several decades, the British reach is long and deep.
“To the older generation of Iranians, it‘s as if the sun has never gone down on the British Empire,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, director of Middle Eastern studies at Syracuse University. “They are considered the masters of political intrigue, and players such as the U.S. are considered to be novices, new kids on the block.”
Suspicion of Britain heightened under Iran’s current administration, said Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “Ahmadinejad‘s government has always been very Anglophobic in its approach,” he said, noting a 2007 incident in which Iran took 15 British marines and sailors into custody, saying they had violated Iranian waters. “They’re really obsessed with Britain in a way that even previous Iranian governments, even in the Islamic republic, haven‘t been.”
Ahmadinejad and those in his government have little political experience outside Iran, analysts said, and are often unsophisticated in their dealings with other nations, relying on local folklore that goes back a century — to when Britain had great influence in the region.
BBC as Revolutionary Force in Iran:
In every Iranian crisis, the BBC has come in for blame, perhaps in part because of its history in Iran. “BBC Persian service has a very specific position in Iran — it was created in 1941 to help with the overthrow of Reza Shah,” Ansari said. By the late 1970s, however, “it played a role that was at odds with the British government. . . . It gave Khomeini a lot more airtime than they thought was useful or helpful,” he said, referring to the late ayatollah and leader of the revolution.
“Because the BBC is seen as having been so important during the revolution, with the fact that the BBC is opening a new channel of communication, there‘s a feeling that perhaps the BBC is gearing up for a new revolution,” said Dick Davis, a professor of Persian at Ohio State University.
In Wake of Unrest, Britain Replacing U.S. as Iran‘s ‘Great Satan‘ [Washington Post]
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