The UK armed the Shah’s “autocracy” and directly aided his brutal security service in the decades leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, declassified files show.
After the UK helped overthrow Iran’s government in 1953, the Shah became the biggest recipient of UK arms exports in the world
Whitehall helped prop up his regime with army, airforce and navy training teams
UK Foreign Office gave propaganda support to SAVAK, Iran’s security police, as it held thousands of political prisoners
“Iran is an autocracy and all power flows from the Shah”, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) wrote in an internal file of April 1975. At the time, the UK had an array of military training teams in Iran and a contract to sell its ruler, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, over 1,500 tanks.
Before the 1979 Islamic revolution swept the Shah’s power away, his extremely repressive regime had been one of Britain’s closest allies in the Middle East for a quarter of a century.
It is something many Iranians, now demonstrating against another autocratic regime in Tehran, have never forgotten.
— source markcurtis.info | Mark Curtis | 8 Nov 2022