What are some local and reigonal problems in iran? Also what are past occupations of foreign control in iran?

Question

Please help me, i am in history and am running out of time!

Answer 1

Ooooh I'm actually on here to avoid writing my essay on Iranian foreign policy so here goes.

Past occupations? Well theres a lack of them actually obviously because it was the seat of the Persian empire. It was integrated into the Muslim caliphate for a brief period before it collapsed but since then there haven't been any direct occupations.

In terms of incursions into Iranian politics and territory though obviously the Iran/Iraq war was the major threat recently though Iran has regained all territory lost in that war. Also the British and the Americans have both intervened at various points to depose or reinstate various rulers that they favoured. The CIA coup to bring the Shah to power was the last of these, resulting in the Islamic revolution creating modern Iran.

Local and regional I'm a bit more hazy on but an important factor is the fact that despite Iran holding huge oil reserves it has no fuel processing plants which force it to actually import its petrol, something which has frequently been a bone of contention in Iranian politics.

Also the fundamentalist/moderate debate is obvious, and the role of the REvolutionary Guard as a seperate branch of the armed forces are all worries that I don't have room to go into detail over!

Hope it helps.