Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 5, Number 44, November 14, 1978

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The Shah/s cleanup-BP and Shell next?

Countering London with a purge of 's corrupt Bahai elite

The Shah of Iran took decisive action last week to end political commitment to aid the National Iranian Oil the crisis tearing apart his country, imposing a Company (NIOC) in marketing its crude. The danger military government on the country for the first time in forcing out BP and its sister company Royal Dutch in 25 years and expediting an unprecedented Shell, he said, is that the two companies would anticorruption campaign that has resulted in the organize an international boycott of Iranian crude. arrest of some of Iran's most prominent political Iranian sources concur that the Shah could instantly figures. rally tremendous support behind his regime and The Shah's actions have halted an orgy of undercut the opposition, if he were to announce to his destruction and bloodshed, which has been led by nation a move against BP and Royal Dutch. Such an exiled Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini. action would solicit the strong nationalistic sentiment Acting as an agent of Israeli and British intelligence, of most Iranians, who still strongly resent the Khomeini, in connection with urban terrorists and dominant presence of British Petroleum advisors and Iranian students, called last week for a holy war managers in Iran's oil-fields�as a vestige of the against the Shah in order to establish a reactionary intensely hated period of British colonial domination "Islamic Republic." of Iran. It was in that era that many of Iran's most Underlying the Shah's imposition of military rule is corrupt oligarchical families first established their the powerful backing of the prime movers of the predatory relationship to the nation. European Monetary System - West Germany, European diplomatic sources say that Iran has been , and Japan. Since the Nov. 6 announcement of hit unsparingly with one destabilization after another a military government, the Shah has broadened his precisely in order to destroy "the model of Third crackdown against powerful royalists associated with World development." While the same London-cen­ the Bahai sect, a secret society created by British tered political and financial interests have maneu­ intelligence and headquartered in Haifa, Israel. The vered to undercut the European Monetary System are arrest of former Prime Minister and Minister 01 Court running the anti-Shah campaign. participants in the Amir Abbas Hoveida Nov. 8 is the latest in a roundup EMS have made no secret of their intentions to expand of numerous political and business figures over the their aid to Iran's modernization campaigns as a last 48 hours on charges of corruption. Numerous crucial priority. figures associated with the Iranian secret police Both the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are also SA V AK, including its former strong man General working behind the scenes to support the Shah. and Nassiri, have also been detained. have publicized their concern f,or the Shah's survival in numerous press statements. Significantly. Pravda British colonial domination nears end last week likened the Shah's .current domestic policy The Shah's current crackdown is seen by Iranian to his "White Revolution" of the early 1960s, when the diplomatic sources as the opening to finally feudal religious and landed aristocratic classes were completing the 1953 "first phase" of Iran's oil expropriated through land reform. Since then these nationalization, by expelling both Royal Dutch Shell interests have maintained power through both and British Petroleum, the majority holders in the 14- speculative business ventures and high government company consortium that still markets most of Iran's and military positions. Now the Shah's anticorruption crude oil. Well-placed sources reveal that numerous purge is forcing these figures out of power. In this powerful Bahaiists still have close contacts with BP; connection, both and the New York Post some, such as Hoveida, are still on BP's payroll from report an exodus of prominent wealthy Persian the days before the nationalization. Jewish families, who are known to have a According to a source in West Germany's longstanding alliance with Iran's decadent royalist Economics Ministry, Iran could easily complete families. nationalization within a 24- to 48-hour period. But, the source warned, the key to the success of the move Arab and Soviet support for the Shah would rest on whether other oil companies with large According to Arab diplomatic sources. the heads of international marketing capacities would make the state that recently attended the Arab summit at

November 14-20. 1978 EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW INTERNATIONAL 27

© 1978 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Baghdad discussed support for the Shah. and Who's protecting Khomeini other Arab states agreed to take behind-the-scenes action to ensure the Shah's survival. In particular. the in France? Arabs are fearful that a full-scale Shi'ite Muslim French diplomatic sources say that there is an intense "holy war" in Iran would spill over into the vital oil­ fight on between "various intelligence services in producing region of the Persian Gulf. Iraq has a large France" over the continued presence of Ayatollah Shi'ite population which would easily be affected. and Khomeini there. a growing population of Muslims resides on the Soviet A clue to who's sponsoring the anti-Shah religious southern border. leader is the solid support which France's daily Le The Arab oil-producing states have. moreover. Monde has given him since early this year. while also acted forcefully to quell all fea-rs of an international oil consistently publishing propaganda against the Shah. crisis as a result of widespread labor strikes. which Le Monde is closely associated with powerful French had closed down Iran's oil fields up until Nov. 8. Saudi Zionists. in particular the Rothschild family. And Arabian Oil Minister Zaki Yamani. in a statement that significantly. the director of the N.M. Rothschild went almost entirely unreported in the Western press. Bank. John Loudon. was until last year the head of vowed thisweek to increase Saudi production to offset Royal Dutch Shell. Another link in the chain is the fact Iran's diminished output. The Saudi move was meant that it was Morocco's King Hassan who personally to throw cold water on oil-crisis-mongering both from arranged for Khomeini to seek exile in France; Britain's Foreign Secretary David Owen and his Hassan is known for his longstanding ties to the same cothinkers, U.S. Energy Department head James French Zionist networks. Schlesinger and Henry Kissinger. Zionist support for Khomeini may at first seem According to French radio in a Nov. 7 broadcast. a paradoxical. given Iran's close ties to Israel. But these close confidant of the Shah announced that it was Zionist circles. and their friends in the City of London. neither the Soviet Union nor the U.S. which was have been publicly demanding the establishment of an destabilizing Iran. but a "third force." This is as close anti-Soviet military pact dominating the Mideast. as the Shah has come to openly naming Zionist and conforming to Henry Kissinger's scheme for an British intelligence for their crimes against Iran. The Israeli-Iran military axis. Khomeini is providing one quick expulsion of BP and Royal Dutch Shell would way to either force the Shah into line or replace him assuredly get the message across. with someone more amenable to the Kissinger - Judith Wyer gameplan.

dering on the one hand. that if the was done. but without success. It French, Soviets army were to replace him (the les­ was then decided in Iraq to expel warn Khomeini ser of two evils), it would lead in him. but allow him the choice of his the short term to a resurgence in exile. Kuwait was asked but re­ tension between Teheran and fused. Turkey delayed its answer. Baghdad, probably through some Algeria and Libya offered. on the In his "Letter from Baghdad," Kurdish uprising. And. on the other contrary. to grant him asylum. and Philippe de Bausset, Le Figaro's hand, a fanatical religious Shi'ite the Ayatollah refused. Mideast correspondent, warns revolution - a holy war - would It was finally through the medi­ Khomeini that his provocative or­ engender indescribable economic ation of Morocco and a special ganizing, which theFrench govern­ chaos in Iran, which would fatally envoy of King Hassan. a man who ment is closely monitoring, may devolve into political warfare .... is interested in playing a role in the result in his expulsion from In such a situation. there are present evolution of this region of France: question marks concerning the the world. that Ayatollah Khomeini The Baghdad government is a­ French attitude. Even though he landed in France. with. it appears. stonished by the fact that the was put under close surveillance at only a three-month, but renewable. French government has granted a­ his residence, Ayatollah Khomeini visa. sylum to Ayatollah Khomeini. Iraq succeeded. from the holy city of had taken care of him by expelling Nadjai (Iraq). where he was living Gaullist: Expel Iranian provocateur him, "manumilitari."Whatev erthe for 15 years, in publishing incen­ cost, the Baghdad government diary messages, which passed Gaullist RPR Party Deputy and wants topreserve its relations with through a very organized network member of the National Assembly Iran for economic as well as poli­ of Mullahs.... Foreign Affairs Commission. tical reasons. Teheran had asked, after the Didier Julia has asked the French Baghdad especially wants the events of August, that the Ayatollah government to throw Ayatollah Shah to remain in power, consi- be more closely surveilled, which Khomeini out of the country.

28 INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW November14-20, 1978