Mideast

Mideast

The Ayatollah is a dirty commie. He may not proclaim himself a commie, but by his actions you may know him. Doesn't it say something like that in the Bible, the Christian Bible? According to the Ayatollah, it's either his way or prison, which is the modus operandi of ever good, er, dirty commie. It doesn't matter whether his way makes any sense or not, which is why they have a hard time putting together a military force that is powerful enough for anyone to consider it a threat. Anyone who has a brain is going to be insulted by the Ayatollah's bullshit. The only way anything gets done is if you have slimey weasels to run interference, people who can takes the Ayatollah's blabber and translate it, transform it, or possibly even deflect it before it reaches the ears of those who are actually capable of doing the work. That would be a tough job, I don't think I could do it, and I certainly don't want to be in a position where I would be compelled to.

Israel, you may have heard, has killed two top terrorists in the last few days. One was a leader of Hamas and the other was a big shot in Hezbollah. I couldn't be happier, especially when I read the nonsense coming out of Al Jazeera.

I've been wondering why someone doesn't quash some of these tin-pot dictators and set up a new system of government, like we did with Japan and Germany in WW2. Then I realized doing something like this generally means war, and wars are expensive. These days it has become a question of economics. If you invade and take over some country, are you going to be able to extract enough money to make it worth while? I mean the chief-jerks-in-charge would be fine with it as long as it doesn't impact their whores, toot and private jets, but with inflation the cost of whores, toot and private jets ranks right up there with funding a small army. So as long as North Korea and Iran are just spouting off and aren't seriously bothering anybody, it's easier and cheaper to just let them go along their merry way.

Hamas went over the line and Israel is angry, they are going to continue their war against Hamas and Hezbollah until they are eliminated from the face of the earth. At least I hope they are. It certainly doesn't make any sense to stop now. Iran might get involved, but I think they are just going to continue  doing what they are doing, which is spouting nonsense and funding terrorists. They are unlikely to do anything serious, even assuming they are cabable of launching a competent attack, given that the USA might take offense. But that's all idle speculation and I'm not going to worry about it. It would be a shame if someone carpet bombed Tehran, but it's no more than they deserve. It could be an opportunity to create a new society in Iran, one that wasn't hell bent on picking fights with its neighbors.

Mosques

Hosseiniyeh Ershad in Tehran, Iran

Technically, this building is not a mosque, but it is an old Islamic building. RT has a story about the recent election in Iran. It opens with this:

Hosseiniyeh Ershad in Tehran is not just a religious site for Shiite Muslims, but also one of Iran’s most renowned political venues. Before the 1979 revolution, prominent Iranian intellectual and revolutionary Ali Shariati delivered his fiery speeches against Shah Pahlavi here. On Friday, starting at 8am, this beautiful building with its turquoise dome hosted the largest and oldest polling station in the country.

Remember the Shah? 

During World War II, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran forced the abdication of Pahlavi's father, Reza Shah, whom he succeeded. During Pahlavi's reign, the British-owned oil industry was nationalized by the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had support from Iran's national parliament to do so. However, Mosaddegh was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which was carried out by the Iranian military under the aegis of the United Kingdom and the United States. Subsequently, the Iranian government centralized power under Pahlavi and brought foreign oil companies back into the country's industry through the Consortium Agreement of 1954. 

The election isn't going to make much difference, the Ayatollah and his cronies are still in charge. Wikipedia has a page about the building.

Streetview Ad

I got the picture at the top from Google Streetview. Pan 90 degrees to the left and you get this message in Persian plastered over the view. Translated* it reads:

1402

Website design and launch shop

Praise for curbing inflation and production growth

Advertisement of your brand and products on the Google map. Registration of your business on the Google map

09126063498

Vahid is stable

Digital publication ID: 13742

Shamad code: 1-1-870037-65-100

Maneh Culture Development Center in Naft Ber Game

www.241.ir

I wonder if they have hacked Google Maps or are they doing this with the connivence of Google? Surprisingly, the website URL works.

al-Nuri Mosque, Mosul, Iraq

Over in Mosul, Iraq, Aljazeera has a different story:

Iraq: 5 big ISIL bombs found hidden in Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque

Five large bombs were discovered hidden in the walls of the historic al-Nuri Mosque in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a remnant of the armed group ISIL’s (ISIS’s) rule over the region.

The mosque – famous for its 12th-century leaning minaret – was destroyed by ISIL in 2017 and has been a focal point of the UN cultural agency UNESCO’s restoration efforts since 2020.

The UN agency said five large-scale explosive devices, designed for significant destruction, were found inside the southern wall of the Prayer Hall on Tuesday.

“These explosive devices were concealed within a specially rebuilt section of the wall,” a UNESCO statement said on Saturday.

Streetview takes you inside the mosque

* Translate means taking a screen shot, feeding it to Google Lens, picking up the text and feeding it to Google Translate, stuff that was science fiction 20 years ago.

Land of Paradoxes

Sheraton Plaza Ufa - Congress Hotel
Site of Fourth Central Asian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club

Someone trying to make sense of Iran's behavior:

Land of Paradoxes by Timofey Bordachev

The strongest impression from Iran is the paradox that accompanies almost all aspects of public life. On the one hand, the state strictly monitors order on the streets and compliance with religious requirements. On the other hand, there are no excessive security measures. Moreover, sometimes I even want these measures to be strengthened. For example, at airports, where the random movement of people creates the impression of easy accessibility for terrorists. The ban on all foreign instant messengers is combined with the universal use of VPNs. The conflict with the United States, which has been going on for almost half a century (Iran is one of the few countries where there is not even an American embassy), does not prevent the elite and representatives of the academic environment from fluently speaking English and often publishing in overseas journals.

This paradox is fully inherent in Iranian foreign policy, as one could see after spending several days in the country during the pause between exchanges of drone and missile strikes with Israel. General impression: Tehran is completely satisfied with the results achieved and is not at all eager for an all-out war with its main regional enemy. What from the outside looks like an insufficiently powerful response to Israel is, in Iranian paradoxical logic, exactly optimal. Because it allows you to solve a foreign policy problem without creating unnecessary risks. Everyone understands perfectly well that a big war in the Middle East is beneficial only to Israel? This means that the response to even his most aggressive attack should not serve the interests of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. For Tehran, the main thing is not to give Israel what it wants, and not at all to try to impress anyone.

This unique approach to foreign policy and solving internal problems is the result of the special conditions in which Iran has developed since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Its main consequence was the strategic confrontation with the West, which unfolded at the very peak of world dominance of the United States and its European allies - in the 1980s - 2000s. At first, Tehran’s enemy was also the USSR, which supported the government of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. By the way, people in Iran remember this well. But this does not mean that the attitude towards the Soviet Union is transferred to Russia - here Iranian strategic logic easily accepts that yesterday’s enemy can be a reliable ally today. The conflict with the West, despite the possibility of tactical deals, has an ideological character: the Iranian state is built on the independence of internal decisions, which the United States and Europe deny to everyone else.

The price of this Iranian independence is very high. First of all, there is a constant outflow of educated young people, dissatisfied with the restrictions of private life. The price also includes a significant number of poor people and air pollution in cities due to the use of old cars and poor quality gasoline. The answer to these challenges, as should be typical of a Grand Strategy, is paradoxical: it consists in a constant increase in the number of students and large universities with their own research laboratories (mainly in the natural sciences). Now Iran is probably the country with the most rapidly growing educational programs, including those aimed at international cooperation. At the same time, no one is preventing the return of those who have left, if they have not committed any offenses. Collaborative research with Iranians living abroad is also encouraged. And Iran’s consistent efforts in developing the natural sciences allow us to think that over time it will be possible to solve the economic and technological problems of development. Under the conditions of the American blockade and UN sanctions, results are coming slowly, but the alternative is a renunciation of independence, which is not part of Iran’s plans.

When assessing Iran's foreign policy, we must first understand that this power has fought against all odds for several decades, outnumbered and alone. And therefore, she may, like few others, be characterized by the paradoxical logic that distinguishes the owners of a real Grand Strategy. And every decision of the Iranian authorities - tactical or more ambitious, such as joining BRICS in January of this year - should be assessed precisely as a manifestation of a paradoxical, completely devoid of linearity logic. Predicting behavior within the framework of such logic is almost impossible, but it is precisely this logic that makes relations with Iran interesting and instructive.

Euphemism of the Day

INS Sumitra

From India’s navy rescues pirated Iranian ship in Arabian Sea:

The Indian Navy’s warship INS Sumitra, which has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden on an anti-piracy operation, rescued a hijacked Iranian vessel on Monday and ensured the release of crew members and the boat itself, amid ongoing tensions in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

The patrol vessel responded to a distress call from the Iranian fishing boat Iman, which had been boarded by pirates along the east coast of Somalia, a navy spokesperson said, adding that the crew were being held as hostages. Sumitra intercepted the fishing boat and “ensured the successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat,” the Indian Navy said in a statement. The vessel was then sanitized and released for onward transit.

The vessel was sanitized? I'm afraid to ask what that means.

Hijacked Fishing Boat

Who's talkin' smack? You talkin' smack?

Tam hits the spot, again, as usual:

Are you gonna bark all day, little doggy?

Iran is talking smack again:

Asked if Tehran would engage if the U.S. weighed in, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said: "Iran considers that the United States is already militarily involved in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians."

"The crimes of the Zionist regime are carried out with the support of the United States and Washington must be held accountable," he added at a news conference.

Then again, they're pretty much always talking smack and have been since they had that revolution back when I was in 4th grade. It makes it hard for me to get too agitated over any particular threat.

"Yeah, yeah, Dariush... you've been going on about those seas of blood to drown the Great Satan and whatnot for forty years now. Whatevs."

Iranian Tomcats

Deep Intel on the Smugglers Who Keep Iran's F-14s Flying
Ward Carroll

Curious story about Iran's efforts to keep their F-14's flying and the USA's battle to keep them from getting replacement parts for their planes. The most interesting bit of information was the number of combat encounters that resulted in the Iranian Tomcat shooting down their adversary. Seems like we seldom hear about a US aircraft shooting down another aircraft and here the Iranians shot down over a hundred. I'm not sure what this is telling us.

Ward has over 200 videos on various topics, but mostly about airplanes.

The F-14 has appeared here before.

China

April 6, 2023 - Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, shook hands in the Chinese capital - Aljazeera

They tell us who the Saudi and the Iranian are, but don't mention the Chinese man, so I asked Google, which led me to a similar picture from a month ago:

March 10, 2023 - Arab world hails Iran-Saudi reconciliation - The Cradle

Here we have three different guys and none of them are identified.

Iran F-4 Phantoms

Iran’s Army chief, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri visit the first underground air force base, called “Eagle 44” at an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on February 7, 2023. Photo: Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

Looking over the pictures I had saved recently I came across this one and I wondered who is still flying F-4 Phantoms? I mean these things are ancient. The first one flew back in 1958, they were a big deal during the Vietnam war. We sold a bunch (200+) to the Shah before he was overthrown.

We also sold some F-14 Tomcats to Iran.

More Stone Age

See the 1,000-Year-Old Windmills Still in Use Today | National Geographic
National Geographic
Stu visited some old windmills and posted some photos.

Driven shaft and exposed gearbox in Salzkotten

This picture shows the bevel gears being used to drive the grindstone, which makes me wonder how they accomplished this before iron gears were something a farmer could afford. I mean, if the ancients could build the Antikythera mechanism they would surely have had the ability to make big bevel gears. But after that, nobody mentions gears until Leonardo starts putting them in his designs around 1500 and it wasn't until the 19th Century that we got the hobbing machine which automatically cuts metal gears. So I'm thinking the probably started casting gears around 1700. For a large, crude mechanism such as this mill casting should have been adequate.

We've been grinding wheat for thousands of years, so what did they do before 1700 to drive the grindstone? 

Wooden cogwheel driving a lantern pinion or cage gear

You could use wooden gears.

Cast iron mortise wheel with wooden cogs meshing with a cast iron gear wheel

This one kind of confuses the issue, as we have an iron wheel with wooden teeth engaging an iron gear.

Or just use a windmill with a vertical axis so you don't need gears at all. That's what we have in the video above.

Natanz Nuclear Facility Sabotage

Natanz Nuclear Enrichment Facility, Iran

EXCLUSIVE: Mossad recruited top Iranian scientists to blow up key nuclear facility - The Jewish Chronicle

When I reported about this eight months ago, I speculated that the damage was either due to stupidity, sabotage or Israel. Turns out it was the last two. It was a impressively complex operation. Attacks were carried out on three or four sites simultaneously using a variety of methods including a take-apart drone firing missiles.

People are setting up quadcopter drones to deliver all kinds of mayhem like arming them with machine guns or turning them into suicide drones by arming them with bombs. Missiles are another matter. Large winged drones often carry missiles, but not too many quadcopters. I did find this picture of one from Ukraine:

Matrix UAV Demon drone. Image Credit: Matrix UAV

Technically it is carrying an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade), not a missile, but that might be what they used. Missiles can be heavy. A Hellfire missile weighs a hundred pounds and a Sidewinder weighs close to 200. It would take a substantial quadcopter to lift that big a payload.

Natanz Nuclear Facility

I wanted to see what this place looked like, but when I pulled up Google Maps, I found that the 3D view button was missing. Also, when you zoom out far enough to see whole continent, you will notice that the map projection they are using has changed. And they didn't even ask me, the dogs. To get the 3D view, you need to use Google Earth. Natanz is roughly 150 miles south of Tehran.

Pic of the Day

Bas-Relief from Persepolis
198 piece Jigsaw Puzzle

Persepolis was a capital in ancient Iran. This puzzle was pretty tough to do. No big clues (except the sky) as to where anything went, everything roughly the same color, though you might be surprised how sensitive your eye is to different shades.

Prompted to post this by a story that Italy wants to start charging people for taking pictures of ancient ruins.

Guns

Thousands of illicit weapons are displayed onboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey.

That's a bunch of guns, easily a million dollars worth, even if you are buying them wholesale.

Wild images show thousands of assault weapons, machine guns and sniper rifles the US Navy says it found on a sailing ship believed to be bringing them from Iran to support the war in Yemen. - New York Post

Presumably the boat that was carrying the weapons

 

USS Monterey

On one hand I'm kind of opposed to restricting rebel's access to weapons. That's what the UN does and it has resulted in several disasters. On the other, sometimes you need to choose what side you're on, and Iran is pretty obviously on the other side. If a proxy war is what you want, a proxy war is what you get.

Via Richard Fernandez

Tyranny, Science and Stupidity

Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant on April 10, 2021 © AFP / IRANIAN PRESIDENCY

Iran reports ‘NUCLEAR terrorism’ attack at Natanz facility – day after uranium enrichment began - RT

Whenever something like this happens in Iran, I am divided over whether it was stupidity, sabotage or Israel. We all know Iran's avowed objective of destroying Israel, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Jews were behind this 'attack'. Sabotage is equally likely, there is a sizable contingent in Iran that is not happy with the current theocracy. But then I am also reminded of this quote:

"Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy." - Jorge Luis Borges 

(I like this quote so much this makes the fourth time I've posted it.)

While we can be reasonable certain that the people working on Iran's nuclear project are imbued with the correct ideology, but they might not be sharpest, technically speaking, and they just made a mistake.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we've been watching this South Korean series on Netflix. It's about equal parts drama and action. There are big dramatic pauses (that seem to be the stock in trade of soap operas) that make our heroes look like idiots, but they manage to mostly succeed (thanks to the script). The villains on the other hand are constantly reassuring the big-wigs that the situation is under control, the problem will be taken care of, and then in spite of having all the resources you could possibly need, failing. Does 'curses, foiled again' ring any bells. It's great to see them fail, but it makes me wonder, could any organization be that stupid? The answer is yes, which means this show might be more realistic than I think.

So tyranny fosters stupidity. How is it then that the Soviets manage to outpace the USA in science and technology during the cold war? Maybe their recent experience in WW2 bound them more tightly to their socialist religion. Iran has been a divided country ever since I don't know when, maybe when the first Shah came to power? Or maybe Iran's secret police are not as zealous as the KGB.

Iran's Ballistic Missile Magazine

Exclusive | A barrage ballistic missile launcher platform unveils
IMA Media • ایما مدیا

I just love Iranian propaganda, which is exactly what this video is. Iran has managed to hold onto a cadre of engineers and rocket scientists and if they were left to do their job, they could no doubt produce some formidable weapons. But Iran is an authoritarian regime, and as we all should know, that kind of environment promotes stupidity. So while they can produce an impressive stage setting for their fearsome weapons, it is extremely unlikely they would be able to launch more that one without some sort of catastrophe, and even more unlikely they would be able to hit their target.

And I'm not sure just what having a trainload of ballistic missiles buys them. Yes, they are all standing straight up in the launch position, but anything nearby, shoot anything in the same tunnel complex, would be roasted if they launched one. Rockets don't like being roasted, so all the other rockets in that train would explode. As presented it just doesn't make any sense. You would either need a separate cavern sealed off with blast proof doors and provided with Allah's own ventilation tunnels, or you would need to lift the rocket to the surface, which kind of defeats this whole 'magazine train' idea. But maybe I shouldn't mention it. You don't want to interrupt your opponent when he is in middle of making a big mistake.

Iran is like the hothead who is constant hollering about how he is going to kick your ass, but if you ever confront him he runs off and hides. All their bluster is just to impress the peasants in their own country. No one else should pay them any mind.

But you know, if an idiot is waving a gun around and threatening to shoot you, I am pretty sure you are justified in punching him in the nose, so I wouldn't blame Israel if they dropped a bomb right down a silo into the bunker.

Previous posts about Iranian missiles here and here.

Via Tyler Durdan at ZeroHedge and The Drive

Blast from the Past

1978 Air to air photo taken while training the Iranian Imperial Air Force before the fall of the Shah.

Previous post about the Iranian Tomcats.

British Airways Flies to Tehran

The Bazaar of Isfahan, a vaulted two-kilometre street linking the old city with the new, is one of the oldest and largest markets in the Middle East

IBT has brief story about BA resuming flights to Iran. They've also tacked on a set of really good photos.

Mideast Forecast: Gloom & Doom

Arak IR-40 Heavy Water Reactor, Iran. 14 October 2012

IBT has a piece about the USA's nuclear deal with Iran. The title is a little brash, but the explanation is pretty good.

Global Security has a good background story about Iran's nuclear power program, though it seems to end in the early 2000's.

The Physician

Statue of Avicenna Ibn Sina
I am pretty sure this is in Adana, Turkey

On the surface The Physician is not a great movie. The characters are a little thin and their motivations transparent, but it deserves credit for even attempting the story at all. It attempts to cram about six full movies-worth of story into one. It runs two and a half hours.

We have some characters out of the history books:

• Avicenna (c. 980 – 1037), the physician, known as Ibn Sina in the movie,
• Muhammad ibn Rustam Dushmanziyar (? – 1041), aka 'The Shah', and
• Tughril (990 – 1063), the unnamed commander of the Sekjuk horde.

and a real place with fictional sounding name:

• Isfahan, a city in central Iran that has been there since before the beginning of recorded history.

Towards the end of the movie the Seljuk horde conquers the city. From the Wikipedia article, that seems to be plausible:

The Turkish conqueror and founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Toghril Beg, made Isfahan the capital of his domains in the mid-11th century; but it was under his grandson Malik-Shah I (r. 1073–92) that the city grew in size and splendour.

The story is basically about ignorance, the beginnings of medicine, and stupidity of religious fanatics. All stuff we know, but sometimes it's good to go back and review the basics. Whether our hero (the Christian Englishman masquerading as a Jew) was actually able to preform any of the medical miracles attributed to him is totally a matter of conjecture. Someone had to be first and it could well have been him. The knowledge from the first actual trials may not have survived. It may be that our first recorded instance of a successful medical procedure wasn't the first one. It may not even be the second or the tenth. It is just the first record we have. Prior to the printing press, our history is a little spotty.

Jimmy Carter & The Shah of Iran

Jimmy Carter and The Shah

A comment on one of Peter's posts prompted me to do a little research. Thomas Carlyle was the first item to pop up. Wikipedia has a long article on him. I read the introduction. Then I found this article over on Stack Exchange. It makes a lot of sense to me.

There is a notion that superpowers have, well, super powers, and can bend history to their will. There is never a shortage of conspiracy theories involving foreign agents. The reality of course is that even great powers are constrained, and the idea that Carter's appearance in Iran sparked a revolution is at the very least too Carlylian for my taste.
If Carter had a role to play, I would say that his administration placed too much faith in the shah's government, then was indecisive in its support. Carter managed to disappoint reformers even as he failed to provide unambiguous support for the-devil-we-know, and left the regime to its devices in the critical year of 1978 while his administration focused on SALT II and the Camp David Accords. Ultimately, forces in Iran, not a few provoked by the shah himself, are responsible for what followed.
The OP refers to New Year's Eve 1977. On a 16-hour visit, Carter became the first and only U.S. president to visit Iran, and at dinner made an infamous toast:
Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you. The transformation that has taken place in this nation is indeed remarkable under your leadership.*
With that, Carter seemed to dash hopes that his administration would put real pressure on the shah, while at the same praising the very policies which had angered much of the Iranian public— inviting the scorn of the liberal, Marxist, and Islamist opposition alike. But to claim that this was the spark of the revolution is an overstatement.
In the early 20th century, as Persia was caught in the endless machinations of the British and Russian empires as they jockeyed for position, the U.S. may have been seen as a potential third power which would put a stop to the meddling. But the U.S. had no interest in Iran (it was cultivating influence with the Saud family on the other side of the Gulf) until after World War II, when Cold War politics came to dominate foreign policy. It was vital to keep the largest and wealthiest state in the Middle East out of the sphere of the Soviet Union. American and British involvement in the 1953 coup d'etat against the Mossadegh government was widely suspected, and later confirmed to be true.
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi by all accounts proved to be soundly anti-communist and pro-Western ally. To the West, he was abolishing feudal institutions, industrializing the economy, and secularizing Iranian society. The U.S. even curtailed intelligence-gathering in Iran in the 1970s, trusting his government to supply it. Internally, however, the shah managed to alienate large segments of the population with increasingly arbitrary rule (e.g. replacing the calendar): first clerics and landlords in the White Revolution of 1963, then the intelligentsia, and after he tried to blame the souring economic conditions of the 1970s on merchants, both the commercial classes and the unemployed.
The Carter administration did admonish the shah on human rights concerns early on, resulting in the token release of some political prisoners, but public protests began months before Carter's visit. Mustafa Khomeini, son of Ruhollah Khomeini, was killed while in exile in Iraq in 1977. The shah's secret police were widely believed to be responsible, leading to protests and a harsh crackdown. Secular intellectuals issued a challenge in October 1977, and citing this letter, Khomeini encouraged clerics to step up their opposition citing the letter. So the protests of January and February 1978 were the culmination of years of resentment against the regime, its secret police, and its propaganda machine, not a spontaneous critique of American foreign policy.
Some do blame Carter for later events. He had been elected partly on the promise of a government that practiced its high ideals. In contrast to the realpolitik that led previous administrations to turn a blind eye to human rights issues and social justice, his would not intervene in the affairs of other countries, and would take an active interest in disarmanent and peace. At the same time, however, Carter had the reality of serving a superpower's interests during the Cold War, in a period when the West had seen a succession of humiliations in Southeast Asia and Africa, and the U.S. was reeling from Watergate, Vietnam, and stagflation.
These competing interests played out at the very top of the administration. From the early months of the crisis, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor, advocated for ardent support of the shah as in the best interests of the U.S. The State Department under Cyrus Vance (and the U.S. ambassador, William Sullivan) believed that the shah was a lost cause, and that supporting democratization would serve U.S. interests better.
By February 1979 Iran was in a state of civil war, but the U.S. dithered. Brzezinski was assuring the shah of unwavering support, the State Department was reaching out to the liberal opposition to try to smooth transition to a democratic government, but the government refused to support a coup d'etat or other action that could have replaced the shah with someone other than Khomeini, much less any direct military intervention. When the shah was admitted to the U.S. for medical treatment in October, students stormed the embassy and published documents showing that U.S. officials had met with moderate leaders. This helped turn public opinion against the moderates and raised fears of direct U.S. intervention, which Khomeini extracted for maximum propaganda value for years to come.
choster
August 16, 2012

Casey Jones Goes to War

Veresk Bridge

Mazandaran Savadkooh: View from the Veresk Bridge.

I don't remember what exactly got me started on this, possibly one of Comrade Misfit's posts about steam locomotives. Anyway, I got started rummaging around and discovered this little bit on Schenectady History dot org. Alco is the compact version of "American Locomotive Company".

Alco was also on time in the kind of war story most satisfying to railroad men. The story was told in "Casey Jones Goes to War," by Amy Porter, in Collier's magazine, May 20, 1944:

The Trans-Iranian railroad gave America's soldier railroaders one of the hottest, coldest, toughest jobs they ever had to do. In the critical days of late 1942, Russia called for more supplies. Nazi submarines were crippling the Murmansk convoy route. The Mediterranean was closed to Allied shipping, and although generous supplies were being brought around the tip of Africa and landed at Persian Gulf ports, only a feeble trickle got through to Russia. The inadequately powered Trans-Iranian Railway was the bottleneck.This 650-mile road bisects a 150-mile stretch of desert before it struggles to heights of more than 7,000 feet in the Elburz Mountains. Temperatures range from 170 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert to 40 below in the mountains... There are 225 tunnels, thousands of bridges.
British steam locomotives and even America's 2-8-0's were not powerful enough to negotiate this tortuous road and haul much freight. It took most of their power to carry the coal and water on which they ran. Something had to be done.
At this point American Locomotive Company representatives were called to Washington... Could P. T. Egbert of Alco, Washington wanted to know, get some diesel-electrics over to Iran quick? Mr. Egbert could. And could Alco, by the way, convert the diesel axle arrangement somehow so the Iran road could bear their 120-ton weight? They could.
In the first week of December, twenty-nine diesels with six axles instead of the standard four were delivered at the Persian Gulf-along with a newly recruited American Locomotive shop battalion, eight hundred strong, to play nursemaid to the thousand-horsepower giants. The M.R.S. (Military Railway Service) took over operation of the road, and shipments increased until in May, 1943, Russian requirements in munitions and supplies were exceeded by 18 per cent...
Now a great fleet of diesels and a grand division of M.R.S. troops have the Iran situation well in hand.

Wikipedia has a story article about the Trans-Iranian Railway.
Odd old film, in French, no subtitles: Reza Shah of Iran inaugurates the Trans Iranian Railroad

Costain built 11 miles of the Trans-Iranian Railway, seven tunnels and two viaducts in isolated mountainous terrain - for £1 million.

The Veresk Bridge is right in the center of this map. You will notice how the rail line doubles back, loops around and even crosses itself here. This explains how we can see the viaduct in the second picture from the bridge in the first picture.
    The map is about 9 miles top to bottom. Iran has a green fringe along the shore of the Caspian Sea. This area is right at the southern edge of this green fringe which makes it about 50 miles from the coast.
    I made this map by tracing the railway line in the map version and then changing the base map to the satellite view. The little white blobs are tunnel entrances. There are more tunnels but Google Maps ran out of ink, or memory, or something.