ABSTRACT
What was not clear, however, was to what extent the revolution in Iran was an event as profound in its implications as the French and Russian revolutions, or whether it was merely a reshuffling of the political elites in Tehran. Most European states seem to have concluded, once the dust of revolutionary events had settled, that a pragmatic approach was the most appropriate. It was a sentiment that was powerfully reinforced by the outbreak of the Gulf War in September 1980 - just eighteen months after the revolution began and before the revolution inside Iran itself was complete.
