Naval_Gazer
GCM

Britain is 'Great' again! For so many years, Iran has demeaningly referred to us as the 'Little Satan" compared to the 'Great Satan' of the USA. However, last Friday Britain was described in a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameneil as the most "evil" of the "hungry wolves in ambush" (link). The previous Sunday, the newly re-elected Iranian President Ahmadinejad, noted for saying that Israel should be wiped from the map (link), told the United States and Britain to stop interfering in the Islamic Republic's internal affairs after its presidential election (link). Really? I seem to remember Foreign Secretary David Miliband and other UK politicians deliberately avoiding any words of censure when pressed by reporters.
The history of relations between Britain and Iran has long been fraught (link) although we achieved a hiatus in the late '60s/early '70s when we trained the Shah's armed forces before the revolution. They even bought our frigates. More recently it has involved 'arresting' our Service personnel while they were fulfilling their UN duties boarding commercial vessels in the approaches to Iraqi ports. Then there is the question of Iran supplying Iraqi insurgents with explosive technology to kill coalition forces. Last week, Iran expelled two British embassy officials and now it has arrested locally-employed British embassy staff, supposedly because the British embassy has helped incite demonstrations against the election results. I say again, oh really?
How has this situation come about? Is it simply down to old wounds or is the BBC actively promoting insurrection in its new Farsi broadcasts on the World Service? One thing for sure, governments desperate enough to blame other nations for their self-inflicted woes and introduce harsh measures to control their own population generally come to grief... eventually. You don't even need to look further than the mirror.
Any thoughts?
The history of relations between Britain and Iran has long been fraught (link) although we achieved a hiatus in the late '60s/early '70s when we trained the Shah's armed forces before the revolution. They even bought our frigates. More recently it has involved 'arresting' our Service personnel while they were fulfilling their UN duties boarding commercial vessels in the approaches to Iraqi ports. Then there is the question of Iran supplying Iraqi insurgents with explosive technology to kill coalition forces. Last week, Iran expelled two British embassy officials and now it has arrested locally-employed British embassy staff, supposedly because the British embassy has helped incite demonstrations against the election results. I say again, oh really?
How has this situation come about? Is it simply down to old wounds or is the BBC actively promoting insurrection in its new Farsi broadcasts on the World Service? One thing for sure, governments desperate enough to blame other nations for their self-inflicted woes and introduce harsh measures to control their own population generally come to grief... eventually. You don't even need to look further than the mirror.
Any thoughts?