Explanation: In the early 20th century, the British Empire extracted some notable concessions from the Kingdom of Iran, including concessions to British Petroleum over terms on oil extraction in Iran.

Come the 1950s, with a wave of decolonization and democratization sweeping over the world, Iranians decided that situation was no longer necessary. The democratically elected leader of Iran at the time, Mohammed Mossadegh, chose to enter into negotiations with Britain over their colonial concessions and, when that went nowhere, to simply revoke them.

Britain was none-too-pleased at this, and asked the USA for assistance in overthrowing Mossadegh’s government. The US, initially, declined, having an interest in the ongoing decolonization and disintegration of the old European empires for both realpolitik and ideological/PR reasons. Eisenhower was subsequently elected president in the US, at which point the British convinced the US to back the attempt to overthrow Mossadegh by implying that he was ‘weak’ against the Communist Tudeh Party. Cold War alarms went off, and Eisenhower let the leash off of the CIA for Operation Ajax, wherein the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran for the economic interests of its allies.

Luckily the US and especially the CIA would never try anything like that ever again /s

In the 19th century, Russia forced Iran to cede huge chunks of land in the Caucasus after a couple of wars. The change over to Soviets in Russia brought a brief pause but not before long the Soviets started to get into Northern Iran wanting access and use of their oil.

Reza Shah Pahlavi tried to keep Iran neutral during World War II, but with a growing German presence in the country, the UK and Soviets weren’t having it called a truce once Nazis violated the Soviet & Nazi treaty. In August 1941, they jointly invaded Iran to secure a vital supply line for Lend-Lease aid going to the Soviets. This invasion forced the removal of the Shah and put his young son on the throne, while the Allies effectively controlled the country.

After the war ended, the US, UK, and Soviets had pledged to leave. But only the US and UK followed through. The Soviets refused to go, instead backing separatist groups in Iran’s northern provinces and arming local forces to delay their departure. The Soviets had tried first to force Iran to surrender their oil to the Soviet Union. This led to a major international crisis in 1946, one of the first tense standoffs of the Cold War.

Honestly the UK, Soviets, and US abused and used Iran and why this gets ignored that they were occupied by joint UK/Soviet operation just a few years previously to this is wild.