Listen here.Reza Shah of Iran died in exile in a house in Johannesburg in 1944. Eighty-two years later, an Iranian-born South African economist stood up at BNC#9 to explain why that strange, half-forgotten history still shapes how Pretoria thinks about Tehran, and why the war now raging between Iran, Israel and the United States might be the moment historians look back on as the start of America's retreat from the Middle East. Dr Iraj Abedian takes you from a British-orchestrated abdication and a CIA-backed coup, through Sasol's Iranian shareholder and Mandela's visits to Tehran, to a chessboard being redrawn "literally hourly." His verdict on Washington's war plan: a swamp, not a surrender..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.