The Siege: Ben Macintyre's book recalls a forgotten Iranian hostage crisis

The Siege: A Six-day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-forces Operation That Shocked the World 

Author: Ben Macintyre

Publisher: Crown

Pages:352

Price: Rs 2,275

 

In 2017, Ben Macintyre wrote Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War. It was a digression from his earlier focus on espionage during World War II and the Cold War. Rogue Heroes  chronicled the history of a rag-tag band of irregulars that was raised during the North African campaign during World War II to conduct sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Replete with tales of derring-do, Rogue Heroes was by no means one of Mr Macintyre’s better books. But a hit BBC TV series based on the book has ensured it bestseller status.

 

His latest offering, The Siege: The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama can be seen as a brand extension. The Siege is about an Iranian hostage crisis but not the better known one at the US embassy in Tehran. This one, which took place in the Iranian embassy in London in 1980, partly overlapped that 444-day crisis. The British government’s ability to break it after just six days in a sensational 17 minute operation by the SAS contrasted with the embarrassing failure of a rescue mission by a US Special Forces task force, which eventually undermined President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

 

Mr Macintyre’s original aim in writing this book was to showcase the brilliance of the SAS in post-war action. It was through this siege, he writes, that the world came to know all about the SAS, till then a shadowy, little-known outfit; the rescue operation cemented  its legends and made it a template for Special Forces around the world, including the US Delta Force.

 

But the siege had other long-term consequences. For one, it cemented the reputation of Margaret Thatcher, barely a year into her premiership, as the “Iron Lady”. It was Thatcher’s stubborn refusal to have any truck with the terrorists’ demands that forced the security forces to consider other ways of breaking the siege; calling in the SAS was one of them.

 

For another, it presaged the concept of reality TV. “The first-ever hostage crisis to be relayed in real time, it marked a turning point in the relationship between breaking news and the viewing public,” Mr Macintyre writes. It also made the careers of journalists such as Kate Adie, who went on to become a legend in her time.

 

The Iranian Embassy crisis in London was unique in that the 26 hostages were not citizens of countries that the Ayatollah Khomeini regime considered enemies of Iran. It included Iranians, who were employees, British nationals including Trevor Lock, a stolid British police constable from the Diplomatic Protection Group who became an unlikely hero, Ron Morris, the embassy majordomo who maintained a hospitable equanimity throughout proceedings, and two BBC journalists and assorted applicants for consular services. Unlike the Tehran hostage operation, this siege was deeply embarrassing for Khomeini’s Shia regime, just two years after it had overthrown Shah Reza Pahlavi, the corrupt American-backed king. The terrorists were not pro-Khomeini nor pro-West. They were fighting for the sovereignty of Khuzestan Province, an oil-rich, Sunni Arab-dominated province bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. The Arabs of Khuzestan, with their distinct culture, had participated in Khomeini’s revolution on the understanding that they would be granted autonomy over the resources in their land. When those promises were broken, Arab separatists launched first a peaceful resistance movement that became violent when it was countered by harsh repression that reprised memories of the Shah’s hated secret police, SAVAK. The leader among the six armed terrorists, Towfiq  was among those who had suffered at the hands of Khomeini’s heavies, his brother tortured and killed. The Arab separatists were underwritten by Iraqi Saddam Hussein who spotted an opportunity to undermine Iran’s aggressive new theocracy, which he saw as a threat to his ambitions in West Asia. It is claimed that the operation was organised with the help of the notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal.

 

What did the terrorists want? Their poignant letter addressed to “Dear Britishs” wanted the UK government to convince Khomeini to release from Iranian prisons 91 Khuzestani Arab prisoners and to recognise the national rights of Khuzestan. They also wanted an aircraft to transport the group, including hostages, out of England. If these laughably implausible conditions were not met, the terrorists would start executing hostages one by one, a threat that was repeatedly postponed when responses were not forthcoming.   

 

Notable from the point of view of Indian readers is the efficiency with which the political-security apparatus clicked into place with the government’s COBRA committee of ministers, civil servants and security experts immediately assembling and taking critical decisions. Although the siege was assiduously covered by TV, journalists respected restrictions imposed by the security forces. Contrast this with the televised free-for-all that was the siege of Mumbai, when Pakistani terrorist controllers conveniently had access to Indian security force movements, thanks to unruly TV journalists.

 

The Siege  is not a Macintyre classic. But his knack of recreating the atmospherics makes it a page-turner for the weekend. He draws out with consummate skill the personalities of the dramatis personae and includes such amiably eccentric details as the fate of a gerbil and nesting duck in a nearby nursery school that was cleared for security forces (they were permitted on condition that they did not harm the two pets) and the complaints of an Englishman enraged that BBC’s coverage of the national snooker finals had been interrupted to broadcast the storming of the embassy by the SAS.