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•if?'<4,&«- *f>f »,*•"-^ jtey^Emporium Current Essays129POLICYA useful method of reviewing US-Iran relations and Iran's impulse towards the ex-communist bloc is to divide the revolutionary era into different periods. It must be born inmind that prior to the acquisition of power by the clergy. Iran was prowestern and its political and economic policies were based on a prowestern philosophy.After the Islamic revolution in 1978, bureaucratic and parliamentary apparatus of thestate was occupied by proCommunist elements. Failure of the clergy and communist tocome to a power-sharing agreement compelled the then government to ban all partiesopposing the Islamic system in Iran.US interest in South-east Asia except for the interest of a handful of academic specialists-- began with Turkey through nineteenth century missionary efforts, sympathy for massacred Armenians and attendance at the demise of "the sick man of Europe" at theend of World War I. There was, however, no significant official US involvement inTurkey until after World War II with the formulation of the Truman Doctrine to check Soviet expansion, US involvement in Iran followed US business concerns, which only became significant in the 1980s.Traditionally, there has been no unity in the South-east Asian region, even no clear  boundaries between South-east Asia and neighbouring regions. Thus Pakistan has beendeath with in the light of its South Asian ties and with reference to US policy towardsIndia, and Iran has sometimes been identified with the Arab world. Afghanistan has beenconsidered with reference to its position as a Soviet border state. The South-east Asianstates have themselves recognised the difficulties in the search for a regional identity.When the Baghdad Pact, comprising Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the United States,was named CENTO after the Iraqi revolution in1958, the Regional Co-operation for Development (RCD) was wet up in 1964 by the pact's regional members.
 
The factors decisive to South-west Asia remained serious. The Soviet presence inAfghanistan, the revolution in Iran, the late130Emporium Current EssaysEmporium Current Essays1311980 war between lean and Iraq, the September 1980 coup in Turkey and politicalinstability in Pakistan continued to complicate the South-west Asian nations'international relations, while increasing the area's inability to concentrate on regionalissues and the dissipation of energies needed for dealing effectively with nationalissues. Islamic revivalism, seemingly most virulent in Iran and Afghanistan, is of major concern to the authorities in both Pakistan and Turkey and feeds the anti-Americanresistance in both Iran and Afghanistan. The debate over US policy in Iran has become amajor forces of political strategists, commentators and foreign policy analysts. TheIranian revolution has had a profound impact on US policy in both a regional and globalsense. US support for Iran as the 'policeman of the Persian Gulf', a decision taken in thelate 1960, followed Britain's announcement to withdraw all its forces from the PersianGulf by the end o'f 1971. The US reappraisal of its military support policy towards Iranwas made in the context of increased importance of Middle Eastern and South-west Asianoil to the United States and to stopped up Soviet activities in the area. After the Shahregime was overthrown in January 1979, US-Iranian relations became exceptionallytense. In November 1979, when the US embassy staff in Tehran was made hostage, theUnited States froze the Iranian assets in its banks introduced an embargo on trade withIran and broke off diplomatic relations with it. On January 19,1981, an agreement was reached to free to hostage and the US renounced measures of  boycotting Iran, but left the ban on arms sales to it intact. With regard to the Iran-Iraq war the Reagan administration professedly adhered to a position of 'neutrality" and repeatedlycalled upon the NATO allies not to supply arms to the belligerents. When examining themotives that had led the US administration to strike a deal with Iran, the part played byIsrael, which strongly recommended that Reagan start this bargaining, can not be ignored.Already in 1984, work on revising the US policy with regard to Iran had begun. Earlythat year, Robert McFarlane, Assistant to the President on National Security,received a memorandum frorr- Geaffrey Kemp, Senior Middle East Adviser of the National Security Council Department, which contained recommendations tochange the United State's attitude toward Iran. Kemp wrote that Irtsn posed a threat to USinterests and covert operations against it should be intensified. In this connection, hereported that Iranian emigrants whom he was dealing with hoped to install a pro-westerngovernment in Iran with foreign assistance.In the first half of 1985, the National Security Council continued the attempts to changethe US approach towards Iran within the framework of legal channels of the statemechanism for 
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