In taking 15 British service members hostage last week, Iran’s militant government is following a tactic begun at the birth of its Islamic revolution in 1979, when it took 63 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy.
And if history is a judge, Tehran often gains some concessions from the West, either arms or money, or some diplomatic offering that it believes enhances its image in the region.
“They’ve been trying to take American hostages all along,” said Michael Ledeen, a military analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who advocates fomenting a democratic revolution in Iran. “You can be sure they are constantly trying to take hostages, whether it’s in Lebanon or Israel or Afghanistan or Iraq. It’s what they do.”
Ledeen, who is writing a book on Iran, said the regime often gains something by kidnapping Westerners.
The 444-day hostage situation at the American embassy in Tehran brought the new regime a sought-after standoff with President Jimmy Carter, the failed U.S. rescue mission known as Desert One and Carter’s ultimate re-election defeat in 1980. The revolutionaries also won a U.S. commitment not to interfere in its internal affairs.
Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group set up by Iran, took Americans hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan ended up approving arms shipments to Iran in a failed hostage exchange that embroiled the administration in scandal.
Hezbollah took two French hostages in Lebanon in 1986. Paris promptly evicted an Iranian opposition group, which re-established in Iraq, and paid a ransom. The hostages were freed.
The terrorist group snatched two Israeli soldiers last July in a border incursion that triggered a ground invasion and air assault by Israel. It remains to be seen whether Hezbollah wins any type of concession before releasing the two.
Iran seized eight British sailors in the same Shatt al Arab waterway in 2004. But unlike the current crises, Iran quickly released the eight. Britain so far has refused Iran’s demand to admit the 15 service members were operating in Iranian waters.
A U.S. government official, who asked not to be named, said Iran’s exact motives are not clear at this point.
“What appears to be the case is they saw a target of opportunity andthey seized upon it,” the official said. “They could very well be trying to use this as leverage to get concessions from the West, like possibly to try to secure the release of some of the Iranians being held in Iraq.”
Syed Hasnat, a Pakistani-educated scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said that so far Iran has not demanded anything other than the admission of a mistake. He said with sanctions imposed on Iran by the United Nations and a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf, Iran is actively defending its borders.
“It is a message that it will not allow anyone to cross its borders,” Hasnat said. “Iran will very jealously guard its borders.”
