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Iran is in the eye of the storm.
Always has been.
When oil was discovered in what used to be known as Persia, the multi-national which became known as British Petroleum, was incorporated.
Iranian oil was the reason why Great Britain along with the allied forces in the first world war were able to defeat the Germans.
But as the age of empire gave way to the age of self determination and Persians became Iranians, they wanted full control of their destiny.
The Brits were understandably miffed by this and collaborated with the Americans in orchestrating a coup d’etat against its nationalist leader- Mohamed Mossadegh.
The ill feeling of the Iranian people against the west never went away.
Iran acted in tandem with its neighbours in the aftermath of the Yom-Kippur to set oil prices, which had the worst imaginable effect on Britain and America in the early 1970s.
And when the right moment came to exact its revenge, the Iranian people took matters to hand by revolting against the western puppet — Shah of Iran — who subsequently fled from the country, with Ayatollah Khomeini returning from exile to rule.
Ayatollah Khomeini’s time in charge was characterized by the wars which he fought against the Iraqis and the fatwa which was issued against the British writer, Salman Rushdie, when he wrote the explosive book, the Satanic Verses.
Unlike its great foes in the Middle-East, Iran has managed to stay afloat and has been able to flex its muscles on the global stage, much to chagrin of Israel and the United States of America.
And what do I mean by this?
Its nuclear weapons.
The fact that another country besides Israel has nuclear weapons in the most unstable region in the world has been the greatest source of consternation to the America and the world’s policeman has done everything within its capability to neutralize this threat.
And it’s failed thus far.
But it hasn’t been all plain sailing for Iran.
Lately it has been grappling with a wave of protests from its citizens over women’s rights and these agitations have been compounded by the government’s heavy handed response.
And it’s against the backdrop of political instability that it was announced that huge reserves of lithium was discovered in Iran.
Lithium, what exactly is it?
According to world’s leading repository of knowledge, Lithium does have a number of uses:
Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminum production, lithium metal batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. These uses consume more than three-quarters of lithium production.Lithium is present in biological systems in trace amounts; its functions are uncertain. Lithium salts have proven to be useful as a mood stabilizer and antidepressant in the treatment of mental illness such as bipolar disorder.
And when we learn that Lithium is a key component in batteries for electrical vehicles, then we start to appreciate the strategic importance of the discovery of 8.5 million tonnes of lithium in Iran.
So what happens next?
Multi-national corporations (MNCs) will seek to ascertain the claim by the Iranian government and once it does, it will sign agreements to make huge purchases in order to dominate the race for the switch from fuel driven to electric vehicles.
Should Iran choose to play hardball with the MNCs, we will begin to read about Iranian human rights violation in the newspapers and conversations will center round regime change.
The American government, acting on the orders of these multi-nationals, will bankroll Iranian protest groups in the hope that they can destabilize the polity.
But Iran has a very long institutional memory.
It remembers its humiliation at the hands of the British and the Americans and it has waited for this moment.
Its ambitious nuclear program, over the last three decades, has shown that it has come a very long way and it is prepared to stand up to the west by deploying its weapons, if backed into a corner.
And should things escalate further, humanity might very well have a nuclear holocaust to deal with.
Should we be concerned?
I think so.
Thanks very much for reading