According to Mohsen Milani, "From 1921, when Britain installed Faysal Ibn Hussein as the king of the newly formed Iraq ... until 2003 ... Iraq was Iran's most hostile neighbor." Their competition was especially fierce after the 1968 Baathist coup and the concurrent withdrawal of British forces from the Persian Gulf region. Also in 1921, the British played a role in the 1921 Persian coup d'etat, which led to the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty as rulers of Iran in 1925. Reza Shah's Iran was in economic trouble, and he sought good ties with his neighbors in the 1920s—including Iraq. Iran and Iraq were staunchly anticommunist and pursued pro-West policies. They also cooperated in preventing the emergence of a Kurdish state.