Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh

Many may not know this, but before the Islamic Revolution and the iron fist of the shah, there was a brief but democratic government in Iran, led by Dr.Mohammed Mossadegh. He was deposed by the US and the UK for the same reason as everything else that happens in the Middle East. Oil. You see, in 1901 a foolish and greedy king by the name of Muzzaffar al-Din signed away the rights of Iranian oil to a British company which came to be known as the Anglo-Iranian-Oil-Company, which in recent years has become British Petroleum. Yes folks, that’s right, BP is responsible for pretty much every problem in the Middle East for the last century. But to make a very, very long story short, Dr. Mossadegh nationalized oil, then the US and the UK(the owner of the AIOC) deposed him to get free oil, reinstalled a dictatorship, and set a precedent of deposing democracies that would last over 30 years. This also made the Iranian populace really angry and thus gave birth to the long standing ill will between Iran and the US. Oh, and Dr. Mossadegh also recognized Israel. For further reading, try All The Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer.