Revolutionary road.

Thirty years after the shah's departure, Iran still maintains an anti-American stance Thirty years after the Islamic revolution, Iran retains its ambition to emerge as a regional power, but unlike the US-backed shah, it is now using an anti-American policy to achieve the same goal. "One of the slogans of the revolution was independence, and this has been achieved 100 per cent," Mohammed Sadegh al-Hosseini, an expert on regional issues said. "The Shah also wanted to emerge as a regional player with the backing of the United States but today, decisions... good or bad, are made in Tehran." The United States had stationed thousands of soldiers and advisers in Iran during the regime of the shah, who was also one of the biggest buyers of American weaponry. But with the revolution of 1979 and the subsequent severing of diplomatic relations following the capture of the US embassy in Tehran by students, Iran turned its back on Washington. Thirty years later the oft-chanted slogan "Death to America" remains relevant, especially since the ascent to the presidency in 2005 of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vocal advocate of anti-Americanism. Several attempts by his two predecessors - the conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the reformist Mohammad Khatami - to normalise relations with the West have now been forgotten. The focus once more is on the ideals of the revolution. Ahmadinejad did write letters to former US president George W Bush and he also congratulated his successor Barack Obama, but at the same time he has often announced that the "American empire is on the slope to disappearance". Such comments have served only to widen the gap between the West and Tehran. "The Islamic regime has based its identity on anti-Americanism. President Ahmadinejad has only strengthened it," said one European Union diplomat who did not wish to be identified. The Islamic republic's regional ambitions have raised concerns not only in Washington but also among European and Arab countries. "The current political power has actually isolated Iran from the other great nations on the international stage," said well-known Iranian journalist and analyst Mashallah Shamsolvaezin. "To compensate, he (Ahmadinejad) plays the card with countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and also with Russia and China." Iran's desire to be recognised as a powerful nation has led it to pursue nuclear and missile programmes, graphically illustrated by this week's launch into orbit of the country's first home-built satellite called Omid (Hope). Tehran has also adopted a policy of intervention in the Arab world. Its vocal support for the Lebanese militant Shia movement Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is the most visible sign of this. "Iran does enjoy a certain popularity on the Arab street where Ahmadinejad is quite popular after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, but local authorities there are worried about this influence," said al-Hosseini. A Western diplomat said the way Iran reacted to the recent 22-day Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip ended up "showing its isolation in the Arab world which refused to acknowledge the role it played in helping end the crisis." It now remains to be seen whether after three decades Iran can set aside its revolutionary slogans and accept Obama's offer to start a dialogue that could open a new chapter in Tehran-Washington relations. Soon after he became president, Obama extended the hand of diplomacy in a bid to tackle Iran's nuclear programme that has set it on a collision course with the West, which accuses Tehran of wanting to develop atomic weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes. "The present (Iranian) leaders seem to be reluctant," said Shamsolvaezin. "Iran could again miss a golden opportunity to become a country like the others and thus strengthen its presence."

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