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Amin Saikal

Amitav Acharya

US President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran since the war began have targeted not just the country’s military capabilities, but its entire civilisation.
In recent days, he has threatened that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if it attacks US ships trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
He has previously pledged to send Iran back to the “Stone Age” and warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.
These statements show not only extreme belligerence, but Trump’s complete lack of understanding of Iran’s long, resilient culture and civilisation and the fortitude of its people.
Iran has been subjected to much internal strife and foreign power intervention, but it has never been colonised or subjugated. At every difficult moment in their history, Iranians have fought to preserve what is theirs.
Since the Greco-Persian Wars (499 BC to 449 BC), Persia has served as the West’s ultimate “other”: a dark and despotic oriental villain menacing an enlightened West.
This is despite Persia’s return of exiled Jews in Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple in 538 BC, and its tolerance of diversity in the world’s first truly multicultural empire.

The victories of a coalition of Greek city states over the Achaemenid Persian imperial forces at Salamis (480 BC) and Marathon (490 BC) are considered pivotal moments in the history of Western civilisation.
Yet this was just a minor setback for Persia. In fact, Persia continued to play a decisive role in Greek affairs. Persian gold helped Sparta defeat Athens in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) and Persia was often the most important mediator in Greek affairs.
The Parthian and Sasanian Empires that followed the Achaemenids in Persia then challenged the Romans.
In AD260, Sasanian Emperor Shapur I captured Roman Emperor Valerian in battle – an unprecedented act. A century later, Shapur II’s army fought off an attempted invasion by Emperor Julian, killing him in the process.
Western triumphal narratives tend to forget that Persia repeatedly humbled the greatest Western empire in ancient times.
Alexander the Great conquered Persia militarily. However, he embraced Persian culture, which outlasted Greek influence in the region.

The advent of Islam did not extinguish Persia’s civilisation or resilience, either. Islamic leaders preserved Persian language and culture, kept pre-Islamic festivals such as Nowruz – the 3,000-year-old Persian New Year – and adapted Zoroastrian concepts into Shiite Islam’s emphasis on resistance to tyranny.
The Mongols’ multiple invasions (between 1219 and 1258) devastated Iran, yet core elements of Persian civilisation survived. Persian power flourished again, especially under the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736).
During the Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), Persia was squeezed by the Anglo-Russian rivalry of the “Great Game” era, but was not subdued.
During the second world war, Iran was occupied by the British in the oil-rich south and the Soviets in the north. However, both powers pledged, along with the United States, to respect Iran’s sovereignty and withdraw at the end of the war.
This episode rejuvenated Iranian nationalism and prompted a movement to free Iran from traditional major power rivalries and gain control over its own resources. This especially pertained to oil, since the British had controlled Iran’s oil reserves through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) from the early 19th century.
In 1951, a long-time nationalist-reformist, Mohammad Mosadegh, was elected prime minister, just as Iran’s parliament was nationalising the AIOC, sparking a major dispute with London.
Mosadegh also sought to limit the power of Iran’s monarchy in favour of democratic reforms, causing a conflict with the young, pro-Western Mohammad Reza Shah, who was still the country’s reigning monarch.

The shah was forced into exile in 1953, only to be returned to the throne days later when Mosadegh was overthrown in a covert operation by the US Central Intelligence Agency, with MI6’s help. Fifty years later, US president Barack Obama acknowledged the CIA’s role in the coup.
The US backed the shah as a pillar of American hegemony in the Middle East. In return, US oil companies received a 40 per cent share of Iran’s oil industry.
Yet the shah was able to transform his dependent relationship with the US into one of interdependence. Iran became a pivotal player in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and in the region.
In the wake of the 1973–74 energy crisis, then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned the US would react with force if it was “strangled” by a cut in oil deliveries – a veiled message to the shah.
The Iranian revolution of 1978–79 then toppled the shah and enabled his chief religious and political opponent, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to assume power. Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic Republic with an anti-US and anti-Israel posture.
He essentially based his rule on the historic pride Iranians held as a people in charge of their destiny.
Khomeini and his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sought to entrench Shia political Islamism as the ideological guide and legitimate foundation of the state. But they sought to blend this with the Iranians’ sense of civilisational, cultural and nationalist identity, especially in the face of outside aggression.

The celebrated Persian-speaking poet Ferdowsi (AD940–1020) once said: “Iran is my land, and the whole world is under my feet. The people of this land are the possessors of virtue, art and bravery. They have no fear of roaring lions.”
As Iran’s stand-off with the US continues, it appears the regime is prepared for the long haul against yet another military foe.
But there is no military solution to the conflict. Diplomacy within the framework of mutual respect and trust is the best way forward. Otherwise, the region and the world may remain captive to an energy and economic crisis that could have been resolved through negotiations, rather than war.
As for the future of the Islamic government, that needs to be determined by the Iranian people.
Amin Saikal is an Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Australian National University, The University of Western Australia and Victoria University. Amitav Acharya is a Distinguished Professor of International Relations at American University. This article was first published by The Conversation.




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Salamina, Greece, where the ancient Greeks defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Cyrus Cylinder, one of the most famous historical artefacts from ancient Persia, seen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2013. Photo: AFP

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Cranes and containers at the Israeli port of Haifa. Photo: Shutterstock

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(From left) Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey on April 17. Photo: Xinhua

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks to the reporters at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey on April 19. Photo: Reuters

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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi chats with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the 2025 Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro last July. Photo: AP

A building in Tehran destroyed by US and Israeli strikes amid the ongoing Middle East conflict. Photo: Xinhua

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Brics leaders attend the bloc’s summit in Rio de Janeiro last July. Photo: AFP

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Guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy patrols the Arabian Sea during a maritime blockade on April 15. Photo: US Navy/AFP

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This Week in Asia

Opinion

The US president’s threats to end Iranian civilisation expose his ignorance of the country’s long history


The US president’s threats to end Iranian civilisation expose his ignorance of the country’s long history.


Iran

Donald Trump

Middle East

United States

Diplomacy

US-Iran tensions

War and conflict

Energy

Britain

Barack Obama

The US Defence Intelligence Agency

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The US president’s threats to end Iranian civilisation expose his ignorance of the country’s long history

The US president’s threats to end Iranian civilisation expose his ignorance of the country’s long history