Teaser: Episode 225 - The Iran Episode

Hello everybody and welcome back to the deep program. We start discussing Nicholas Cage movies after the banter, which you get to miss out on, but

Today we are doing a

Monitoring the situation update through my very nasally sniffles. I'm super clogged

So I'm sorry if that if that tickles your ear in the wrong way, but hey

The bombs be dropping so we have to kind of

Get on top of all this and give you the hot

Piping news

Or analysis

Okay, before we start, of course, thank you to everybody that supports us on patreon anybody who buys our merch

Anybody who checks our stuff out and then engages with it

We we love you and appreciate you our patreon our patrons get plenty of fantastic parks

They get access to the discord they get extra episodes they get bonus episodes

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Monthly discussions and much much more. It's a very worth your money to do check it out

That being said let's start today. We're gonna cover

The it on situation generally, but I do need to give it and then this is a very quickly evolving situation

Information changes very quickly

So this could be outdated like not too far from from now, but that's not the point of this the point is to deliver

Give you the tools for analysis to see what is happening why it's happening what the potential

Future could look like or if you really would like a

View into the future let's say

To see what could possibly happen there is a white paper published by the Brookings Institute

Which is titled which path to Persia options for a new American strategy towards it on and this was published in June of 2009

And it has a play for play for every single thing the Americans have done since

To try to basically destabilize that on them for what ends of what purposes

And they have by the way very it's fairly very well written right so and like I'm just gonna give you a few chapter headers

Just so you get the vibes. It starts with dissuading

Tehran the diplomatic option and offer Iran should interviews persuasion

Tempting Tehran with engagement the engagement option disarming Tehran the military options going all the way with invasion

The Osirak option so airstrikes leave it to be be allowing or encouraging an Israeli military strike

And then toppling Tehran regime change the velvet revolution supporting a popular uprising

Inspiring in insurgency supporting Iranian minority and opposition groups the coup supporting a military move against the regime

And then deterring Tehran is the final containment and then accepting the unacceptable containment

That's how they kind of finish it off with various conclusions subsequently

And I'm not kidding when I tell you literally everything like to the letter everything that was done

All the talking points all the justifications all the methods of bringing about are mentioned in this Brookings Institute article

And there are similar or excuse me white paper

And there are similar white papers for China for Russia for Venezuela for Cuba for like they it's out in the open

Because they don't really care to to try to hide it and these white papers are basically the um

The skeleton of what then gets formed into like these very quick few-page summaries

That are presented to congressmen and members of senate the members of government in the states

Who then just rubber stamp it essentially and then there's the these armies of lawyers that codify it into

Law and policy and so on so forth so that's actually gets delivered

So this is like a very clear view into how the United States

Drums up creates and then subsequently implements

It's foreign policy directive and towards what ends and what's most interesting is it's almost

Always exclusively these sort of institutions highly funded by the private sector usually the military industrial complex

and other like you know blackrock

equivalents

For the ends of you know reading natural resources maintaining access to financial markets

blah blah the typical imperialist playbook

So that's the little addendum that I want to give you you should generally check it out

But before you check that out

You should listen to this episode because we need to give you the the necessary tools to analyze the

Bullshit that they say and that's where I'm going to hang it out hand it off to to my beautiful baby boy GT

That's me also listening is better than reading never read only listen and only after I can't get behind this

I came lots of cuz he works for he works for big book

Okay, he's paid my big big book big book

I wish I worked for big book I the fuck I wish

Please JT tell us about a short history of moron Iran and the you I would love to I would love to

Ah

A land of contradictions

Home to the mysteries I don't want to what the fuck do you mean you're wrong?

Shut up sorry

Home to the mysteries that have long intrigued the sunburned masses of the West

To understand Iran

I think we should probably start with the political economy of the early 20th century and the relationship arguments

You're just on a roll today, aren't you buddy?

Please you got all the races about you got anymore

Eyebrows dude, we started this show with stereotypes about the radiance think it's like episode three of the deep program

We were like I drive what Mercedes

I use Gucci Yilty like so so it's

You know, we've been proven right that they aren't good chats, you know fair enough. I rescind my criticism of your jokes. Okay

Political economy right back to the early 20th century

Relationship between Iranian labor Iranian resources and of course foreign capital. So

By the 1950s Iran's oil sector

This is it's most it's single most important source of national wealth was dominated by the Anglo-Iranian

oil company a British firm that controlled extraction refining and export

As you can probably guess the profits of this company float overwhelmingly to Britain while Iranian workers and the Iranian state received only a fraction of the value produced by their own natural resources

Never seen this pattern before

You're a little white Mercedes not and no white Mercedes

Fun fact though this company which used to be called the Anglo-Persian oil company has its roots all the way back in

1901 when the Iranian monarchy granted a British investor named William Darcy

Basically unlimited rights to explore and extract oil in the country and exchange for minor royalties to the royalty

Anyway fast forward back to the 50s and the Engloid oil company had become one of the most profitable ventures across the entire British Empire and

The the situation had created what nerds would describe as a national bourgeois movement in Iran in 1951

Prime Minister Muhammad Mosadek leading a coalition known as the national front attempted to reclaim Iranian economic sovereignty from the pale and squishy hands of the British

His government moved to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian oil company and this act was

enormously popular among the Iranian population because it represented a direct challenge to foreign control over the country's most valuable resource

And then the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize oil in 1951 for Britain and its financial interests though

This was an existential threat oil revenues from Iran were a major pillar of British post-war economic recovery

Allowing a country on the periphery to successfully nationalize its resources would also set a precedent that other colonized or semi-colonized nations might follow

In other words good heavens the colonies are conspiring

Uh

Now around this time the Iranian Communist Party known as the Tudet Party initially treated Mosadek with skepticism from a strict class perspective

Mosadek represented the national bourgeoisie rather than the working class

But the political situation on the ground forced a

strategic reassessment let's say and as the confrontation with foreign powers intensified and the monarchy moved to undermine the nationalist government

The Tudet Party eventually provided much of the grassroots street mobilization that sustained the nationalization movement

And of course, this is where we get the common expression the enemy of my enemy may not be my friend, but at least he's not British

So there you go

The confrontation culminated in Operation Ajax in 1953 the CIA and my six orchestrated a coup to remove Mosadek and

restore the authority of the Shah Muhammad Reza Palavi

This was your bread and butter imperialist intervention the purpose as always and regardless of how the West tried to sell it

It was not democracy or a stability

But to ensure that Iranian oil remained accessible to Western capital and that Iran did not drift onto an

Independent development path or God forbid into the Soviet sphere of influence

I had to make sure that the nose to GDP ratio increases

Because then the fuck I was carrying holy shit. He was packing

I was packing. I wonder whether there is direct correlation between no size and coxize because there is doctor holy shit

Conversely

Oh my god

Anyway, after the coup the Shah ruled as a classic

Comfortor figure

This is a local ruler whose political survival depended on

Facilitating for an economic domination. So pick your favorite term there

You know a lap dog sell out matrader all those terms were used and of course neither the Shah nor the British cared

Iran's economy was reorganized around exporting raw materials primarily oil

While importing finished industrial goods and weapons from western countries

So the state became deeply integrated to the global capitalist system in a dependent position

Then in 1963 the Shah launched what he called the white revolution

This was a series of top-down reforms designed to modernize Iran and accelerate capitalist development

Land reform broke up larger states and and here you might think oh land reform. Yeah, I know that one

Uh, but instead of empowering peasants it produced a massive population of landless rural migrants

So not yay

Millions of former peasants moved into urban areas especially cities like Tehran where they formed a rapidly expanding urban proletariat and semi proletarian population

And here the eagle-eyed British working class spotted something. So one guy said to another. Oh, it's a bit like

Industrial Revolutionary neat bit like what they done to us right and as buddy said back to him

Yeah, but those are all new types they're browning it so it don't really matter

Yeah, and thus the British working class returned to their beans on toast and thought no more of the subject

This period also saw the creation of the Shah's secret police

Savak which was trained and supported in part by foreign intelligence agencies including

Israel's massage a little drumroll who could have guessed great time though really good name though like they've

They're always better than us at names

Savak yeah, that's really that's really cool. It's hard. Fuck you. Oh, it's so good

Yeah, we only ever won with stasi like all the other ones

Yeah

Stasi is like oh

I want to be arrested but you ain't tired

Good day

But yes, this uh, there's really cool

Organization became notorious for repressing Marxists and trade unionists and Islamist opposition groups

Um, and interestingly this era also included a strategic alliance between Iran and Israel both countries were non-Arab states aligned with western geopolitical interests in the region

And under what was sometimes called the periphery doctrine they cooperated economically and militarily

Iran supplied Israel with oil and we began to see more significant intelligence cooperation between the two governments

But by the 1970s contradictions within Iranian society had intensified pretty dramatically

The Shah's modernization project had unsurprisingly enriched just a tiny handful of elites while displacing traditional social classes and creating enormous inequality

This sparked opposition movements which emerged from several distinct social groups

One important force was the bizarre merchant class often described as the traditional petite bourgeoisie

These merchants felt squeezed between state-led industrialization and the influx of western multinational corporations

Another decisive force was the industrial working class especially oil workers

And while Marxist organizations had deep roots among students and intellectuals

It was the mass strikes of oil workers in 1978 that delivered the decisive blow against the monarchy

When oil production stopped the state lost both revenue and political leverage

At the same time millions of people living in urban shanty towns often migrants displaced by failed land reforms

Formed a population known as the dispossessed this population represented a kind of de-classed social layer

So they were no longer peasants

But not fully integrated into the industrial working class

Most of the affine is what he's referring to for those who are who have read to Kedomayan's work

Yeah, I can't say that word. So I just I'll fuck it dispossessed

But they became some of the most militant street supporters of revolutionary movements and and all of these forces converged

During the 1979 revolution now the revolution was not a unified ideological project

Right, this was a temporary united front consisting of Marxists Islamists workers students bizarre merchants

The urban poor and their shared goal was the overthrow of the monarchy and the end of foreign domination

predictably after the revolution the coalition fractured political power ultimately consolidated under the leadership of

Iatola Khmeney and the emerging Islamic Republic

So from a geopolitical perspective the revolution fundamentally transformed Iran's position in the world system

Before 1979 Iran functioned as a Western proxy state and a regional enforcer of Western interests

Do you have something hiking

Oh good good good. You just get very aggressive when he

For stories about Persians

It's only it's only when I hear what's it called the diaspora once talk

I love the new propaganda piece of

The the the football players they didn't want to

So say saying the anthem and that the wish must protect them here are like a hundred million dollars in like

Australian citizenships and this is definitely not like the most cliché

The picture of a sayob slash propaganda never seen in my life like holy mother of God. Sorry for yeah, oh my god

It's like I hate that I don't know if it's because I am in this job that that you know

I do this and I look at this all the time or if everybody else is also noticing this and I hope everybody else

Else is also noticing this because it's like come on. They're not even good anymore. Yeah come on

Anyway, after the revolution

Iran became an independent regional power pursuing its own strategic agenda

Uh, it began building networks of allied movements and militias across the region

Sometimes referred to collectively as the axis of resistance

And these groups function as asymmetric tools to counter the overwhelmingly

conventional military dominance of the United States and its allies

Uh, once Iran stopped acting as a western shondail it was immediately subjected to economic sanctions diplomatic isolation and military containment

So from our perspective a Marxist perspective this shift marked Iran's transition from a

Comprador dependency into a state pursuing a more autonomous

Though still internally contradictory development path. So there you go. There's a little history. Beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous moving into I guess

Or skipping over some history. I want to because we'll get bogged down you also rules her history a hundred times

We'll get bogged down the weeds of everything subsequently. So I want to kind of focus on what

Effected it on so that the situation got to where it is today, right?

Israel

Um, yeah exactly right

I'm sure history of of the aggression by Israel and the specific and the United States to be more specific

But also Israel against Iran

The sanctions that have affected the Iranian economy and then subsequently the nuclear deal and what happened with that

So we'll uh begin with a very very short overview

I get literally two sentences because you don't need more than that

The United States and Israel in more aggressive

Posturing you have always tried to destabilize the Iranian government. They've done this through several ways the most common one is sabotage

Military or economic or scientific sabotage stuck sent them

Worm that they introduced into some of the computer systems of like research institutions particularly nuclear centers

Um was one of them and the other one was the target assassinations of scientists and whatnot

But the much bigger view of this is sanctions

And you can't really separate Israel and in the US because they're very intertwined when it comes to pushing for sanctions

Right

It is American interest to composing sanctions, but there's a lot of a pack and other Israeli-funded money

Uh, that goes into

Basically drumming up or supporting or writing up these

Sanction proposals. We'll begin with the very first one which was executive order

One two one seven zero signed by president Carter at the time. I believe in

79 so this is right after the revolution where uh

He immobilized or froze 12 billion dollars worth of Iranian assets now prior to 979 it on was a western client state

It was a like a

Compreneur state as a result of this

Of course, it was natural for them to put all their assets in western banks, particularly American banks

They served the United States. Why wouldn't they?

The second of that kind of it goes the other way though when the government changes and they're no longer so friendly to the states

Of course the Americans have full access. They know what it what assets there are

What form they are and where they're kept so they can freeze them

Because they're kept on American shores of course. That's kind of one of the biggest um

Drives for digital organization and also for moving assets or diversifying asset

Portfolios away from European and American banks because

This is a what's it called a um a pattern of American foreign policy or western just American aligned foreign policy

If you don't play ball then we're gonna freeze anything that you have in our bank

We don't respect the free market. We don't respect, you know any of this uh

Yeah, you get what I'm trying to say anyways. Yeah, that was the very first one um

Shortly afterwards

It on was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism

And as a result of this the United States banned the export of

All do use technologies now do use is such a loaded term

Because do use can be like nuclear like uh like fissile material

But it can also be like carbon right you can like a car or or like steel can be technically a deal do use

But the vast majority of steel uses yeah, like it's a very easy way of

Making it palatable to a population your domestic population wire

Sanctuary this third world poor country

While at the same time punishing them for trying to import anything basically

But they banned the export of do use technologies and it's basically slowed down your irons

industrialization and continue growth particularly in in construction sectors, but just in general

Then subsequent leads were swallowed by the Iran and Libya sanctions act which targeted any firm then invested over 20 million dollars in Iranian oil

20 million dollars is chump change when it comes to oil

I don't I don't know if you guys know how much a what's it called a pumping stations worth

It is hundreds of millions just a single like you know the thing that you see that spins right them the meme

The shit actually takes a lot of ground three four. Yeah. Yeah, it's hundreds of millions to

To to invest in a foreign country to get these going

So it's a 20 million is basically makes it impossible for anybody to to invest in Iran at the time also in Libya and then also subsequently

The US began trying to close up any sort of loopholes around their sanctions right that could happen legally

By the way, these aren't like this is not the Iranians trying to be smart right this is just like okay. Well Americans won't allow us to

Pass our transactions

Through American banking systems, so let's use like in a European bank or some other kind of bank to do it

These are called U-turn transactions. I'll get to them in a second

But yes began banning these the sort of U-turn transaction which bands or cuts off Iran from the global financial like nerve system

You could say it forces it on to

Into very deep unequal exchange bartering basically where they have to sell their oil for very cheap way under its actual market value

Just so that they can have some sort of trade like I have to incentivize somebody for to to training and this case

It can only be in kind may we'll send you this much oil and you send us this much grain or whatever it is right

They did the same thing with Iraq by the way with the with the food for oil program which is disgusting

But that's a discussion for another day

U-turn transactions specifically it's a legal loophole that allows Iranian banks to move money through the global financial system using dollars

But as long as that transaction turned around basically within a non-Iranian and non-US bank meaning a German or an Algerian or a Russian bank or whatever else

Now if with these transactions being banned, but this basically means that the the United States would limit

Or sanction banks that would facilitate these

The these transactions so basically it means like if you trade within on you're gonna get punished

This is the same thing they do with Cuba by the way

Subsequently another series of sanctions came in now or like up to 2011

This is like the secondary sanctions basically where it's not like primary core economic

Lamentations that they try to set they're trying to basically just close all the valves on it on

The first of which is is intended to basically punish any nation that trade within on

And that was with the swift disconnection which began in 2012

This expelled formally expelled all the Iranian banks from the swift system

And made legal international trade basically impossible

Now right for us in the current like emergence of the multiple world

That's not that big of a deal because now there's like three or four or maybe five other systems that you can use

And the biggest one is the the Chinese one the SIPS system

But the Russians have one the Iranians have developed their own. I believe the Indians also have one

But if you're to go back 15 years

Fuck it even 10 years you just had swift you look outside of swift there's fucking nothing right

So this within 2012 this was a death the death sentence basically this was followed by the comprehensive Iran sanctions accountability and divestment act

So the Americans are four BDS but not not against the one entity where it matters anyways

So this was basically targeting the entire energy value chain specifically regarding oil

It sanctioned any firm selling refined petroleum to Iran now. Why does this matter?

Iran has massive crude reserves crude oil reserves

But it's refining capacity is much lower than the amount of oil that it has

The reason is because is because of colonial underdevelopment first and subsequently these previous sanctions that prevent it on from developing the industrial capacity in base to increase their refining

The capacity for them to refine their own oil is something that the Chinese are trying to help them with currently

But again, this is still like 2012

If you can't get refined petroleum then you can't

Move along your crude oil your unrefined crude right as a result of this you basically is a starvation tactic

This is basically you you won't be able to trade at all and the one thing that allows you to trade your oil

Which is having a bit of refined oil to to kind of like mix with your current. It's more complex

I'm not going to get into the details of how fucking the oil exports work

But basically it means you can't export oil. That's the point of that section

Subsequently there was another one section one two four five of the what's it called

The earlier the comprehensive Iran sanctions act which was

considered to be like the nuclear option of destroying Iranian economic health

And that was against the central bank of Iran and it basically forced foreign banks to choose

Either you trade with Iran or you trade with the United States right if you have any

ongoing transactions with the Iranian central bank, which is what the the Iranian state would use

Then you cannot trade with any American bank period right and this basically means that nobody effectively will even want to

Like if you wanted to I mean maybe you don't know this

JT or or you go you haven't tried to do it probably

If you want to order let's say a carpet from Iran or if you want to get I don't know some

Like handwork or some shit like this right

Some artwork whatever the fuck from Iran you legally cannot do it because no bank will process that transaction because it will eventually hit

An Iranian bank or the central bank of Iran and then immediately that means that the entity that processed it like your local fucking downtown bank

Service will then be immediately sanctioned by the American government

And they won't be able to like it's to that level. So that's why you see this like

You cannot order anything from Iran the way that you can for example and so success for Syria

for for Sudan

And a bunch of other countries DPRK and you know

What's it called Iraq was on the list and a bunch of other Cuba as well some of these countries are no longer on the list

But it's funny enough if you look at the

The terms and service of any software that you

Use it says that you like on on like your honor you say you agree that this

Service that you're using or software you're using does not have any connections not being used in or for

The fact that these countries and so Syria Libya Iraq it on DPRK Cuba Sudan the so on support