unit: se asia/middle east topic: modern iran and iraq
TRANSCRIPT
Unit: SE Asia/Middle EastTopic: Modern Iran and Iraq
1. OPEC
A. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was created in 1973 to control how much oil was sold and raise prices.
B. The Suez Canal is an important link for OPEC to sell its oil overseas.
C.The 1973 oil crisis (October – March) was due to the U.S. support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
D. OPEC decided not to sell oil to the U.S., which greatly impacted EVERYTHING.
2. The Iranian Revolution
(1979)
A.Because of its oil, Iran became a focus of both the U.S. and Soviet Union.
B. Shah Reza Pahlavi had U.S. backing and modernized and Westernized Iran.
C. Many opposed him because Iran was not an Islamic state.
D. The Shah was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
3. Ayatollah Ruholla
Khomeini (1979-1989)
A. The Ayatollah proclaimed Iran to be an Islamic state.
B. All Western ideas were banned, and hatred for the U.S. was fostered with the Tehran embassy hostage crisis.
Islamic States
• Iran
• Pakistan
• Afghanistan• Mauritania
The Ayatollah died in 1989 of a heart attack.
4. Protests
A. Khomeini’s death brought the restoration of some political and social freedoms.
B. There were student protests in favor of further reform in the late ’90s and 2000s.
5. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
A.“President” of Iran since 2005, he hates the U.S. and Israel.
B. He has refused to end Iran’s nuclear program despite repeated warnings, claiming it is for “peaceful purposes.”
• We don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country. We don't have this phenomenon; I don't know who's told you we have it.”
Ahmadinejad on Campus
Strict Religious Codes
6. Persian Gulf War (1991)
A. In 1990, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, invaded oil-rich Kuwait.
B.The U.S. saw the invasion as a threat to both its oil supply and Saudi Arabia, its ally.
C. When Iraq refused to leave, the U.S. attacked on January 17, 1991; the war was over by February 28.
7. War in Iraq (March 2003-
present)
A. By 2003, the U.S. insisted that Saddam Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction” and supported terrorists like Al-Qaeda.
B.The U.S-led coalition quickly toppled Saddam Hussein’s vicious regime.
C.Iraq’s government is not yet ready to take over due to an unofficial civil war between Sunnis and Shi’ites.
• President Obama promised to recall most troops by the end of 2011.
8. War in Afghanistan
(October 2001 – present)
• The events of Septem-ber 11, 2001 ushered in a new era for the United States – the era of terrorism.
• Ironically, 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda terrorists on the airplanes were Saudi Arabian.
Sept. 11: Military Response
A. In October 2001, President George Bush declared war against terrorism and Osama bin Laden in particular.
B. Osama and other al-Qaeda leaders were hiding in Afghanistan; the Taliban gov’t refused to surrender them to the U.S.
C. So the U.S. went to war with Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power.
• The Bush Doctrine: the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself against countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Terrorism and the Bush Doctrine
• The Taliban was an Islamic fundamentalist group that severely repressed women and tortured its opponents.
D. Though many al-Qaeda leaders and members have been caught or killed, Osama remains at large.