Showdown at Doha: The Secret Oil Deal That Helped Sink the Shah of Iran

Author: Cooper, Andrew Scott

Source: The Middle East Journal, Volume 62, Number 4, Autumn 2008 , pp. 567-591(25)

Publisher: Middle East Institute

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Abstract:

What led to the calamitous drop in Iran's oil revenues in January 1977? Politics, religion, culture, and economics have been identified as factors contributing to the collapse of Iran's monarchy in 1979. But until now scholars have been unable to access documents that could shed light on the inner workings of the relationship between senior US officials and the Shah of Iran, whom Henry Kissinger lauded as “that rarest of leaders, an unconditional ally, and one whose understanding of the world enhanced our own.” The declassification of the papers of Brent Scowcroft, who worked in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the origins of the Iranian Revolution. They reveal that in 1976 the US and Saudi Arabia colluded to force down oil prices, inadvertently triggering a financial crisis that destabilized Iran's economy and weakened the Shah's hold on power.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.3751/62.4.11

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