Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The two powers announced that they would stay until six months after the end of the war with their enemy Nazi Germany (World War II), which turned out to be 2 March 1946. On that date the British began to withdraw, but the Soviet Union delayed until May, citing "threats to Soviet security".[4]
For the occupation of northern Iran by the Soviet Union during World War II, see Persian campaign (World War II).
The invasion, code name Operation Countenance, was largely unopposed by the numerically and technologically outmatched Iranian forces. The multi-pronged coordinated invasion took place along Iran's borders with the Kingdom of Iraq, Azerbaijan SSR, and Turkmen SSR, with fighting beginning on 25 August and ending on 31 August when the Iranian government formally agreed to surrender, having already agreed to a ceasefire on 30 August.[1]
The invasion took place two months after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union's subsequent alliance with the United Kingdom. The attack also took place less than two months after Allied victories over pro-Axis forces in neighbouring Iraq and French Syria and Lebanon.
The invasion's strategic purpose was to ensure the safety of Allied supply lines to the USSR (see the Persian Corridor), secure Iranian oil fields, limit German influence in Iran (Reza Shah had leveraged Germany to offset the British and Soviet spheres of influence on Iran) and preempt a possible Axis advance from Turkey through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or British India. Following the invasion, on 16 September 1941 Reza Shah abdicated and went into exile, being replaced by his young son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iran would remain under Allied occupation until 1946.[5]
Background[edit]
In 1925, after years of civil war, turmoil, and foreign intervention, Persia became unified under the rule of Reza Khan, who crowned himself as Reza Shah that same year. (In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use "Iran", the historical name of the country, used by its native people, in formal correspondence.) Reza Shah commenced an ambitious program of economic, cultural, and military modernization. Iran, which had been a divided and isolated country under the rule of the Qajar dynasty[6] (in power during 1789–1925), attempted industrialization. Reza Shah's regime established schools, built infrastructure, modernized cities, and expanded transportation networks.[7] The Shah pursued a foreign policy of neutrality, but depended on Western financing in order to finance his ambitious modernization projects.[5][7]
In early 1940, as Britain was involved in war with Germany in North Africa, it grew concerned about German access to the Persian Gulf, especially in light of Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.[8][9] The British began to accuse Iran of supporting Nazism and of being pro-German.[5] Although Reza Shah declared neutrality at an early stage of World War II, Iran assumed greater strategic importance to the British government, which feared that the Abadan Refinery (of the UK-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) might fall into German hands; refining eight million tons of oil in 1940, the refinery made a crucial contribution to the Allied war effort, see Abadan, Iran.[5][10] Relations between Britain and Iran had been strained since 1931 when the Shah unilaterally cancelled the D'Arcy Concession – a 1901 agreement that had given the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company the exclusive right to prospect for Iranian oil for 60 years, with Iran receiving 16 percent of the net profit. Led by the Shah, the Iranian imperial government accused the Company of undercutting its share of the profit by clandestinely reinvesting new capital into subsidiary companies, and thus excluding a significant sum from the annual capital gain calculation. Though the Shah promptly renegotiated a second concession with the Anglo-Iranian Company – with terms that better protected the Iranians' stake – the diplomatic conflict created an impression that the Shah was hostile to British oil interests.[5][7]
Following Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became formal Allies, providing further impetus for an Allied invasion.[11] In a major strategic analysis in the New York Times on a Sunday following Barbarossa, the famous international correspondent C. L. Sulzberger stated, in reference to the Operation Orient, "It is considered virtually a certainty by military experts that if the Reich succeeds...an attack on Egypt will be launched. Should the Germans...occupy the Caucasus and then push on to Iran and the Persian Gulf they will then outflank the British Middle Eastern positions by a wide sweep and perhaps by Autumn begin to make trouble in Iraq."[12] With the Wehrmacht steadily advancing through the Soviet Union, the Persian Corridor formed by the Trans-Iranian Railway offered one of the easiest ways to supply the Soviets with Lend-Lease goods sent by sea from the then technically neutral United States.[13] British and Soviet planners recognized the importance of that railway and sought to control it. As increasing U-boat attacks and winter ice made convoys to Arkhangelsk (which commenced in August 1941) dangerous, the railway seemed an increasingly attractive strategic route.
The two Allied nations applied pressure on Iran and on the Shah, which led to increased tensions and to anti-British rallies in Tehran. The British described the protests as "pro-German".[5][7] Iran's strategic location threatened Soviet Caucasian oil and the Soviet armies' rear, and any German advance south-eastwards would threaten British communications between India and the Mediterranean.[14]: 215–216
In July and August, the Shah refused demands from the British for the expulsion of German residents from Iran (mostly workers and diplomats). A British embassy report, dated 1940, estimated that there were almost 1,000 German nationals in Iran.[15] According to Iran's Ettela'at newspaper, there were 690 German nationals in Iran (out of a total of 4,630 foreigners, including 2,590 British).[16] Joan Beaumont estimates that "probably no more than 3,000 Germans actually lived in Iran, but they were believed to have a disproportionate influence because of their employment in strategic government industries and in Iran's transport and communications network."[14]: 215
However, the Iranians began to reduce their trade with the Germans in the face of Allied demands.[5][7] Reza Shah sought to remain neutral, not wanting to anger either side. This approach became increasingly difficult in the face of Anglo-Soviet demands. British forces were already present in sizeable numbers in Iraq as a result of the Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941.