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Westernization -- smashing the windows of banks, hotels, tourist shops
and businesses selling alcohol.
The weekend eruption forced Iran's beleaguered leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi,
to install a military government and to intensify marshal law. Practi
cally with one stroke he was forced to suspend all the liberalization
measures he had been introducing over the past few months -- removing
press censorship, permitting the formation of political parties, and
the freeing of political prisoners. With every freedom, it seemed,
came increased turbulence and greater demands. The Shah has now turned
to his greatest ally, the 400,000 strong military establishment, up
until now loyal to the Shah but feeling hamstrung with political con
straints on dealing with the crescendo of violence.
Will the new tough measures of the Shah work? Will striking laborers
-- especially the 37,000 in the crucial petroleum industry -- go back
to their jobs? Perhaps for now they have little choice.
The United States has consistently expressed sympathy for the Shah in
his mounting dilemma. But the Shah's crackdown runs counter to Washing
ton's human rights drive -- which many prominent Iranians feel helped
fuel Iran's turbulence in the first place.
What happens in Iran is critical for several reasons. The country is
the world's second largest exporter of oil (after Saudi Arabia). It
supplies roughly 8% of U.S. import needs, but is proportionately far
more important to the economies of Japan and Western Europe.
Equally important is Iran's geographical position in the tense Middle
East/Far East region -- an area that an American expert once called "the
real center of the world."
A stable pro-West Iran is absolutely essential to the stability of the
region. Ever since the British pulled out of their Mideast sea bases,
the United States has depended upon Iran to fill London's shoes as the
region's "policeman." The Shah has willingly undertaken this task and
has purchased $21 billion worth of military hardware from the U.S. to
step into this role.
Now, however, this role is threatened, the Shah having been forced to
divert massive funds to the civilian economy in an attempt to quell the
unrest.
Brooding over Iran's troublesome future is the Soviet Union, Teheran's
neighbor to the north, with whom it shares a 1,500 mile border. Moscow,
of course, supports the Iranian Communist Party, Tudeh. But even if
the Communists don't come to power someday, the Kremlin would still
benefit from a neutral, traditional Islamic government. One which would
undoubtedly trim back Iran's military links to the United States and
Europe and put the brakes on Westernization.
The importance of a stable Iran to the entire free world was summed up
by a report in the November 13, 1978 issue of U.
s.
News and World Report:
Iran guards the sea-lanes over which most Iranian, Persian Gulf
and Saudi Arabian oil flows to the U.S., Western Europe and Japan.