In generel the article is right.. The Shah was never a puppet of the west, that has always been a myth. He was simply a sovereign leader who wanted to develop Iran, but even this was not acceptable to the west....his oil policy, his military policy, the nuclear policy....they wanted Iran to stop it all, that's why they brought Khomenei in, the West wanted him to turn Iran into a second Saudi Arabia! But the Soviets had nothing to do with the coup against the Shah, that's bullshit.
A better asessment of the fall of the Shah can be found in the book "
A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" by William Engdahl.
A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order: F. William Engdahl: 9780745323091: Amazon.com: Books
A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order: F. William Engdahl: 9780745323091: Amazon.com: Books
Back then in 1979, China was the only country which called the revolution a western coup, and their asessment was totally right. Ironically, a few years later, China became Irans most important ally. In the Iran-Iraq war, China provided Iran with critical know how to re-engineer US weapons, and when Iran re-started its nuclear industry in the mid 80's, it was China which helped with technology and training of iranian nuclear scientists (a decade later they stoped due to US pressure).
As far as Russia is concerned: In Soviet Era, Russia had a common border with Iran, and when Khomenei came to power, this was a threat to Russias interests in the Caspian Sea region and also the wider Middle East, so the Russians helped to arm Saddam in the war to degrade Irans conventional military. Fortunately the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia was no longer a world power and had no common border with Iran anymore, so they the saw a stronger Iran as usefull against the US. In the 90's, Russia trained a lot of iranian military engineers and after Chinas exit, Russia trained Iranian nuclear scientists and provided nuclear technology to Iran. And in the current Russia-West standoff, Iran can further profit.
It was one of the Wests biggest mistakes in history to topple the Shah. The Shah never opposed the West, he only wanted a sovereign and prosperous Iran. Now the West has the unique chance to again have close relations with Iran, if they don't take it, then Iran will totally go into the Russia-China camp.
What the hell is Levantine anyway? It's Northwestern Semite basically. Northwestern KSA is part of the Levant historically. Levant was and is inhabited by us Semitic people and Hijaz the original homeland of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid Empires is an extension of Sham (Levant) and always was. Even during the time of Prophet Muhammad (saws).
