Iran and Iraq have oil.
Prior to World War One, both Germany and Britain wanted to get control of that oil.
Prior to World War One, Germany began building a Berlin to Baghdad railway.
(Map: freepages.military.rootsweb.com/.../)
According to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway
The Berlin-Baghdad (and, ultimately, Basra) railway linkages would have enabled transport and trade from Germany through a port on the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods and supplies could be directly exchanged with the farthest of the German colonies, and the world.
The run home to Germany would give German industry direct supply of oil. This access to resources, with trade unfettered from British control of shipping would have been beneficial to German economic interests (F.W. Engdahl).
The initial steps towards construction of a rail line from Constantinople (İstanbul) to Baghdad were taken in 1888.
'Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order' by William Engdahl, was reviewed by William Bowles , 31 December 2004 ('The Great Game'). The following is an extract from the review:
By 1912 oil was discovered in what is now Iraq and in the area that the Berlin-Baghdad railway would pass close to and it was proposed that a link be built that would connect the railway to the oil-producing area “making Germany independent in its petroleum requirements”.
Unfortunately, WWI intervened.
In 1913 the British government (again secretly) purchased a majority shareholding in the Anglo-Persian Oil company (now called British Petroleum) and from this point on “oil was at the core of British strategic interest”.
Engdahl makes it clear that if Britain could deny its competitors access to oil it could assure its continued pre-eminence as a world power and was even prepared to risk world war and toward this end created a secret military alliance with France and Russia that ensured that, should Germany invade either Russia or France, would inevitably involve Britain.
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