In the 19th century, Persia was courted by two pushy suitors:  Czarist Russia and Imperial Britain. It was one of the key arenas where the so-called ‘Great Game’ for control of central Asia was ‘played’ by these two giant imperial powers. Eventually two ‘Areas of Influence’ were established, with Russia dominant in the north of the country, Britain to the south.

After World War One and the Russian Revolution, Britain became the supreme foreign power in Iran. This continued until after World War Two, when the ascendant USA took over as Iran’s chief  ‘ally’. In the late 1970s a popular revolt toppled the Shah and Iran’s Islamic Revolution ushered in the current era.

Dr Younes Parsa Benab: a left-wing historical perspective on Iran

For most of the 20th century, a secular left-wing was a significant force in Iranian politics. It was was not monolithic and had pro-Soviet and independent elements, like the left in most counties. It was recurrently suppressed by authoritarian Iranian regimes, acting with the support of Britain and America. After the Islamic Revolution, repression of the secular left did not come to an end.

Iran has been the plaything of domineering external interests for generations – and the determination of Iran’s current leadership to chart an independent course is not hard to understand. Those in the west with secular and ‘progressive’ aspirations for the Iranian people might do well to reflect on how those influences came to decline in the first place. The centuries-old western imperial remedy – yet more external manipulation – is no way to help this generation of Iranians.

In a single speech, President Obama has negated much of the goodwill and positive momentum that his new Administration brought to a weary, anxious world.

Obama: risks squandering global goodwill to placate his Zionist 'friends'

By committing to a massive expansion of the US war in Afghanistan, without time limit or any end in sight, Obama dooms his Administration to become another failed war Presidency.

America is now in danger of becoming the largest failed State in human history. Hopelessly corrupted by Zionist infiltrators, it insists of sparring (at massive cost) with invented foes, cranking up futile armed conflicts, against ‘enemies’ nominated by a foreign power, enemies that are really just popular restistance movements.

The real aim of this crazed war – not necessarily Obama’s goal, but the goal of his devious advisers – is the destablization and Balkanization of Pakistan. This is a longstanding Israeli objective. It will be dressed up, characteristically, as an attempt to achieve precisely the opposite.

Obama is clever, but he’s not Superman. He cannot fight demons on a dozen fronts at once. He cannot solve America’s horrific problems, fix its substandard healthcare system, solve it’s grotesque over-dependence on fossil fuels, make friends out of foes, show leadership in solving the global environmental crisis, extricate troops with a modicum of honour from Iraq, stand up to the foreign agents in its midst, pay for some of the damage his predecessor has done to Americans and others, rectify the US fiscal imbalance, keep public debt under control, rebuild America’s creaking civilian infrastructure, restore confidence in the banking system and world economy….. AND fight a massive new unwinnable war against a largely imaginary enemy, under the advice of  Zionist agents who clearly have other interests at heart.