![\"Turning](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/epa-oil_tanker-320x200.jpg\")
When empires fall apart or shrink, they usually leave behind a vacuum \u2013 and all sorts of loose ends that fall on someone else to tidy up. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the British drew up artificial boundaries that created new states, while also making all sorts of contradictory promises to the Jews and the Palestinians. Much of what we are experiencing today can be explained by those decisions, which shaped the future of the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then came the British Empire\u2019s post-World War II decline and its desperate efforts to hang onto what it could of its colonial sphere of influence. In Iran, it tried to maintain control over energy reserves through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in a very heavy-handed manner. It failed to do so on its own, so it got the next great Western empire, the United States, involved. When the British faced the company\u2019s nationalization, they convinced Dwight D. Eisenhower that Iran would come under communist \u2013 and, therefore, Moscow\u2019s \u2013 control if he didn\u2019t step in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What followed in this intense Cold War climate of that era was the world\u2019s first major CIA operation, aimed at toppling Iran\u2019s prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. The Americans did try to hold talks before instigating the coup, but they met a leader who made it clear to their envoys that he had no interest in compromise. He believed that foreign interference always aimed to keep Iran \u201csmall,\u201d a pattern he traced all the way back to Alexander the Great\u2019s destruction of Persepolis.<\/p>\n
American advisers were shocked when ordinary citizens on the street basically admitted that they didn\u2019t care if they went hungry because no one could extract Iranian oil once the British left. American technocrats chalked these responses up to a mixture of patriotism and the Shiite \u201cmartyr syndrome.\u201d Given this heavy historical baggage, we can imagine how plans to \u201ctake Iran\u2019s oil\u201d sound to a modern Iranian today.<\/p>\n
The map of the Middle East is being redrawn again right now. The Gulf countries are in a state of shock and looking for new alliances because the idea of an \u201cAmerican umbrella\u201d makes them nervous. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a \u201ctotal victory,\u201d at any price \u2013 both on the battlefield and in the polls. The Chinese, meanwhile, are biding their time. And US President Donald Trump is trying to prove that history is not invincible \u2013 that Gaza can become a new Riviera and Iran can be turned into Texas.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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