The Sunni-Shia conflict is 1,400 years in the making, dating back to the years immediately after the Prophet Mohammed died in 632. The Prophet died without having appointed a successor, leading to a massive split over the future of the rapidly growing religion – chiefly whether a kind of democratic consensus should choose the religion’s next leader or whether only Mohammed’s blood relations should reign. One group of the early followers of Islam wished to elect a friend and loyal follower of Muhammad, Abu Bakr. This group would later be known based on the Arabic term sunna, or “way” of Mohammed. Another group of early followers of Islam favored Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law. This group would later be known based on the Arabic term shi’atu, or “partisans of Ali.” Both men eventually held the title – Abu Bakr first and Ali fourth – but the schism hit over who should come next and erupted in violence. 

By aligning with other groups, Sunnis continued to prove militarily successful against the Shia, establishing and maintaining dominance on the Arabian Peninsula. In the 15th century, the Turks adopted Sunnism, expanding their Ottoman Empire eastward onto the Arabian Peninsula. Counter the rising tide of Sunnism, the Safavid (Persian) Empire to the east consolidated its belief system around Shiism in the 16th century. In the map below and to the left, the Ottoman Empire (pink) stretches westward along the coasts surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, northeastward along the coasts almost surrounding the Black Sea, and southward along the coasts along the Red Sea. NOTE: Ottomans did not control the center of the Arab peninsula. Instead, it remained under the House of Saud, a noble family that practices a more conservative form of Sunnism known as Wahhabism (more details below). In the same map, the Persian Empire (purple) stretches along the eastern side of the Caucasus and Zagros mountain ranges. In the map below and to the right, the New York Times outlined the presence of Sunnis (in red) and Shiites (in blue) in the present day. Shadows of these empires and their sectarian divides still linger. Today, Sunnis make up between 85% and 90% of the Muslims in the Middle East, and the major fault lines between these two groups can be seen in present-day maps, with Iran (present-day Persia) being Shia-led and the Arab States predominantly Sunni. Even when Sunnism was the dominant sect throughout much of the Arab Peninsula, a strong Shia minority remained. 

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the losing side. As such, after the war, the victors - France and Great Britain - carved up the real estate, creating “mandates” under the UN’s predecessor organization, the League of Nations (see more here). As noted in the previous module, Great Britain gained territory that is now present-day Israel, Jordan, and Iraq. At the same time, France took control of present-day Lebanon and Syria territories. During this period of mandate rule by the British and French, there was intense backlash and a call for independence throughout the region.

Though the Safavid Dynasty lost control of the Persian Empire in the 18th century, the empire remained independent from colonial powers and faced infighting from warring factions instead. That said, the people within the Persian Empire faced growing resentment over autocratic rule, and in 1906, they launched the Constitutional Revolution. As the outcome of this revolution, a constitutional monarchy was established, which kept the king ("Shah") in power but allowed for the adoption of a national parliament and the creation of a constitution. 

The history of Iran is only complete with the history of oil reserves. Oil reserves were found in Iran in 1901 by a British surveyor, William Knox D'Arcy. By 1908, significant quantities of oil had been discovered in southwestern Iran, leading to the establishment of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909. This company was later renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and eventually became British Petroleum (BP).

During World War I, though, the Persian Empire remained neutral. However, the Russians and British fought within the territory to counter the Ottomans and Germans and to ensure the other did not gain the upper hand in this neighbor of Russia with vast oil reserves. The presence of foreign troops and the country's division into spheres of influence exacerbated political instability in Iran and contributed to economic difficulties, famine, and disease. The Anglo-Russian occupation also fueled nationalist sentiments and distrust of foreign powers, influencing Iran's domestic politics and its relations with Russia and Britain in the years that followed. At the end of WWI, the severely weakened Qajar Dynasty was met with widespread dissatisfaction among the Persians. Soon after the war, an officer in the elite military apparatus of the Empire, Reza Khan, launched a coup to depose the Shah, Ahmad Shah Qajar. Once in power in 1925, Reza Khan adopted the surname "Pahlavi," which means "elder," to honor a great ruler of the Persian Empire, Cyrus II the Great, and renamed the Persian Empire "Iran," which was an Aryan word for the people within the region in an attempt to modernize the country. The word Persian, however, is still used to discern the people, language, and culture from the government structure.

Reza Shah Pahlavi's reign from 1925 until his abdication in 1941 was marked by an ambitious program of modernization and centralization that profoundly transformed Iran. His initiatives covered various political, economic, and cultural reforms. As one of the most transformative reforms of the government since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Reza Shah worked to create a strong central government where regional tribal leaders and local chieftains had once held power under the previous dynasties. To further bolster the strength of the central government, he also modernized and expanded the Iranian military, building it into a professional and highly trained defense unit we see today.

Economically, Reza Shah embarked on massive public works projects, building the Trans-Iranian Railway and road infrastructure across the vast landscape.  He also worked to build industrial centers in cities, expanded public education for all ages, and encouraged women's education. Finally, he sought to gain more control over domestic oil production from foreign interests. His efforts were part of a broader push for national sovereignty and economic independence, which would create an enemy of the British. Culturally, the Shah implemented policies to reduce the influence of religious institutions in both the educational system and the legal code, moving towards a more secular state. These included banning the traditional hijab (veil) for women in public and promoting Western dress as a symbol of modernity. He also promoted a sense of Iranian nationalism that emphasized the pre-Islamic history of Iran, celebrating the country's ancient Persian heritage. This included significant investments in archaeology and the restoration of historic sites. For many, this change was too far and fast, especially among those religious Shiites who were more conservative and the religious clergy with a vested interest in the traditional order. 

During World War II, Iran again declared neutrality. Still, British and Soviet forces invaded in August of 1941 in an operation known as Operation Countenance. This occupation was justified based on concerns about securing oil supplies, Reza Shah's close economic ties with Nazi Germany, and Iran's strategic location, sharing borders with the Soviet Union and situated near British-held territories in the Middle East.

Once occupied, the British pressured Reza Shah to abdicate, arguing that removing the ruler with supposed Axis sympathies would safeguard Iran from becoming a puppet state of Germany. In reality, many believed he desired to see oil revenues remain in Iran that worried the British. Shah Pahlavi's abdication in September 1941 marked a significant turning point in Iranian history. After Reza Shah was exiled (first to Mauritius and then to Johannesburg, South Africa), his young son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was crowned as the new Shah of Iran and considered by many to be an installed puppet for Western states. Throughout the rest of the war, Britain took control of Iran's resources, fueling nationalist sentiments and laid the groundwork for future political movements, including the nationalization of the oil industry in the early 1950s and the eventual rise of opposition groups that would culminate in the 1979 Revolution.

Following World War II, the British and French fulfilled their wartime promises by evacuating and recognizing the sovereignty of newly independent states. Britain evacuated Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq (and the Palestinian mandate), and France withdrew from Lebanon and Syria. In 1951, the British withdrew from Oman. Kuwait gained independence from the British in 1961, Yemen in 1967, and Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates would not gain independence until 1971. 

One of the more infamous moments in U.S.-Iranian relations occurred in 1951. With the increasing frustration surrounding foreign influences in Iran's economy, the Iranian Parliament voted in 1951 to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Company. Consequently, all oil profits once funneled to the British would now go to the Iranian government. This move was widely popular throughout Iran and led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. In response, in August 1953, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence launched Operation Ajax. This coup resulted in the ousting of the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh from power. The Shah, who had fled the country during the coup, was ushered back with substantial support from the British and Americans. The oil industry subsequently returned to international revenues, though Iran did secure a better share of the revenues than before the nationalization.

Over the rest of the Shah's rule, he continued attempts to modernize. He used oil revenues to finance industrial projects and infrastructure, including roads, schools, and hospitals. He continued to modernize culturally through reforms to encourage women's rights (e.g., voting) and literacy campaigns. When opposition to these reforms continued, however, he used increasingly brutal tactics. After the coup, the Shah established the National Intelligence and Security Organization (SAVAK), which became notorious for arrests, torture, and disappearances. As the Shah remained close to the West, anti-Western sentiment grew among his enemies.

As noted above, though some welcomed the modernization of Iran under the Shah, he ruled with authoritarian repression and created enemies among an otherwise disparate group. His secular reforms created enemies within the conservative Shi'ia clergy and its followers in the country. His allegiance to the West created enemies among the students and other groups who were advocates of socialism and influenced by the Soviet Union. Finally, his suppression of political dissent and use of the secret police, as well as his moves to ban freedom of the press and political parties, angered many who wanted a true democracy for Iran. In 1978, public protests started throughout Iran and quickly gained momentum. Though the original group of protesters was quite eclectic, an exiled cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini soon became the symbolic leader of the revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini had been an outspoken critic of the Shah since 1963, when he encouraged antigovernment riots that led to this forcible exile to Iraq. On the eve of the Iranian Revolution, a critical article on Khomeini sparked outrage among the Iranian population, and people took to the streets in January of 1978. By September, the military opened fire on protesters in Tehran’s Jaleh Square, killing and wounding several demonstrators. This event, known as Black Friday, significantly radicalized the revolution. Facing increasing unrest, the Shah left Iran in January 1979 for exile, marking a point of no return for the revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile on February 1, 1979, receiving a hero's welcome and taking control of the revolution. In April 1979, following a national referendum, the Islamic Republic of Iran was officially established, with Khomeini as its Supreme Leader.

A return to conservative social values was enforced. The Family Protection Act of 1965, which provided further guarantees and rights to women in marriage, was declared void, and mosque-based revolutionary bands known as komītehs (Persian: “committees”) patrolled the streets enforcing Islamic codes of dress and behavior, dispatching impromptu justice to perceived enemies of the revolution. Throughout most of 1979, the Revolutionary Guards—then an informal religious militia formed by Khomeini to forestall another CIA-backed coup as in the days of Mosaddegh—engaged in similar activity. The violence and brutality often exceeded that which had taken place under the shah. The militias and the clerics they supported also tried suppressing Western cultural influence. This anti-Western sentiment eventually manifested itself in the November 1979 seizure of 66 hostages at the U.S. embassy by a group of Iranian protesters demanding the extradition of the shah, who at that time was undergoing medical treatment in the United States.

The new government created in 1979 is a theocracy, a system of government in which religious leaders rule. However, unlike other theocratic systems (e.g., the Vatican), Iran combines religious elements of Islam with republican principles to form the Islamic Republic of Iran (the formal title of Iran since 1979). For the republican part, we would recognize that Iran has a President (Ebrahim Raisi) and a Parliament elected directly by the people. For the Islamic part, there is the Supreme Leader, the highest-ranking official in the country, with authority over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, as well as the military and media. The current Supreme Leader is Ali Khamenei, who has been in this position since 1989. While the President is responsible for much of the daily governance of the country, the Supreme Leader has the power to overrule any decisions made by the President.

Two semi-representative bodies are in the middle of these bodies: the Assembly of Experts and the Guardian Council. The Assembly of Experts is comprised of 88 Islamic scholars and clerics. As such, members within the assembly must practice and think Islamic. This group has the ultimate and exclusive power to dismiss the Supreme Leader and is also directly elected by the people. Finally, a smaller, more judicial body is known as the Guardian Council. This council has twelve members, six of which are clerics and six of which are justices. These twelve are appointed by the Supreme Leader and serve as guides in legal matters related to Shiia law as it applies in the country. 

Within the areas of national security, there are two other entities worth mentioning, both led by the Supreme Leader. The morality police - or Guidance Patrols (Gasht-e Erashad in Farsi, the Persian language) - is part of the national police. The force was established in 2005 to uphold Islamic morals and laws on "proper" dress, which were introduced after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The BBC (here) estimates that 7,000 male and female officers have the power to issue warnings, impose fines, and arrest suspects. President Raisi, a hardliner, introduced several new measures for enforcing the hijab rules. According to Britannica (here), although the Gasht-e Ershad monitors the behavior of both women and men, it primarily concerns itself with women’s dress. Its most frequent interventions involve the enforcement of ḥijāb, a notion that broadly denotes covering a woman’s body with loose-fitting garments and most often refers to the veiling of a woman’s hair. Finally, and most confusingly, there are two branches of the army in Iran that are divided—not by specialty but by allegiance. Whereas the Iranian army is responsible for protecting the national security of the state, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp's allegiance is to protecting the Shiite clerical ruling system and reports directly to the Supreme Leader.

Fast-forward 45 years after the Iranian Revolution, and much remains the same. 

Domestic Discontent - The Supreme Leader still rules the country guided by his interpretation of Shia Islamic law. Though there is a democratic process in place, the religious clerics have ultimate decision-making power, leading to growing discontent among those who would like more personal freedoms. These frustrations culminated two years ago in mass protests following the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested by morality police in Tehran three days earlier for allegedly violating Iran's strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab. While Iran attributed her death to pre-existing medical conditions, a UN human rights expert said the evidence established that she died "as a result of beatings" by morality police. The first protests took place after Amini's funeral when women ripped off their headscarves in solidarity. The unrest rapidly spread across the country, with demands ranging from more freedoms to overthrowing the state (more here). The Iranian regime cracked down on the protesters, killing at least 537 people, including children, during the months of resistance. Ultimately, the regime prevailed and subdued the protests in early 2023 after a series of executions of protesters. An environment of fear and intimidation persists, and the regime has barred women from accessing services if they do not comply with hijab requirements. In July 2023, Iran announced that the morality police had resumed hijab patrols.

Regional Tensions - As soon as the Iranian Revolution brought a Shia-led government to power, Iran's position in the Middle East has been rife with sectarian tensions with its Sunni neighbors. In 1980, Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq launched an attack on Iran amid fears that his own Shia citizens would launch an internal revolution to overthrow his authoritarian rule. The Iran-Iraq War lasted eight years, and the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people, with no clear victor. 

Hezbollah- In Lebanon, the tensions between different relations groups led the government to divide power among them. Under a 1943 political agreement, Lebanon agrees to have a Sunni Muslim as the prime minister, a Christian as the president, and a Shiite Muslim as the speaker of Parliament. Tensions between these groups boiled over into a civil war from 1975 to 1990. Within this conflict and with the increase of Sunni Palestinians seeking refuge from conflicts in Israel, the Shiite minority in the south became increasingly concerned about its future. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 to expel the PLO (Palestinian terrorists that used southern Lebanon as a headquarters), a group of Shiites took up arms against the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. Seeing an opportunity to expand its influence, Iran used its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to fund and train this terrorist group, called Hezbollah, or “Party of God.” 

Nuclear Weapons - With its power in the region as well as heightened insecurity, Iran began secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As Iran signed an international law against this (the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT), the U.S. government, under the George W. Bush Administration, announced Iran to be a member of an "Axis of Evil" and imposed sanctions against the country. After more than a decade of failing to meet compliance, the Obama Administration signed a deal with Iran in which it would forgo building a weapon for ten years with the promise of sanctions being removed. President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and Iran has begun returning to producing weapons-grade uranium.

Axis of Resistance - In addition to Hezbollah, Iran has created a complex network of support for groups that serve similar goals to Iran. Iran refers to this group as the Axis of Resistance. In many of these cases, Iran supports the Shiia minority in countries throughout the region. When the U.S. invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, the U.S. insisted the Sunni-dominated Ba'ath Party be replaced. In turn, Iraq Shiites were able to take control of the government.  As such, the Iraqi government is being rebuilt by the United States but is also being funded by Iran (more here). In Syria, Iran and Russia work together to support the Assad regime. Though Assad is not Shiia, Assad's father supported the Iranian regime in its war against Iraq in the 1980s, and they have had a strong alliance ever since. In Yemen, the Iranian government supports Shi'ia Houthi rebels vying to overthrow the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government. In other cases, Iran's support of a group is based more on a common enemy than a natural allegiance. A prime example is Iran's support of Hamas, which is based on a common anti-Western and anti-Israel stance that quiets the large sectarian divide. As one example, Iran continues to support Hamas. However, both sides support different outcomes in the Syrian Civil War (Hamas is fighting for the overthrow of the Assad regime, while Iran supports him). 

Tensions in the Red Sea - Tensions in the Red Sea began in October of 2023, the same month as the Hamas attacks on Israel. Weeks after the initial attack, Houthi rebels from Yemen launched missiles and drones at Israel, demanding an end to Israel's counterattack on the Gaza Strip. On November 19th, 2023, the Houthis hijacked a commercial ship in the Red Sea. They have since launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial ships. Of these, 34 have resulted in reported damage to vessels. The Rubymar, a cargo ship that was hit in February, later sank. On 6 March, three crew members were killed in a missile attack on the Barbados-flagged cargo ship True Confidence. US-led naval forces have thwarted many attacks. The Houthis initially said they were attacking ships connected with Israel or heading to or from there. However, many of the vessels have no connection with Israel. In response to US and UK air strikes on their positions, the Houthis have more recently targeted ships tied to owners or operators in the UK or US. Major shipping companies have stopped using the Red Sea - which almost 15% of global seaborne trade usually passes - and are using a much longer route around southern Africa instead.