“Yes, my sin — my greater sin and even my greatest sin is that I nationalized Iran’s oil industry and discarded the system of political and economic exploitation by the world’s greatest empire. This at the cost to myself, my family; and at the risk of losing my life, my honor and my property. With God’s blessing and the will of the people, I fought this savage and dreadful system of international espionage and colonialism.”

Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh
Defending himself against a treason charge
(December 19, 1953)

August 19 2023 — Mohammad Mosaddegh (16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an author, administrator, lawyer, and parliamentarian, who was elected as the prime minister of Iran in 1951. His administration introduced a wide range of progressive social and political reforms, notably the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. His government was overthrown in a coup d’état orchestrated by the British MI6 and the American CIA. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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“The US formally admitted its role 10 years ago with the declassification of a large volume of intelligence documents, which made clear that the ousting of the elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosadegh, 70 years ago this week was a joint CIA-MI6 endeavour. The formal UK government position is to refuse to comment on an intelligence matter.”

UPDATE (August 19 2023) — On the 70th anniversary of the coup, David Owen (foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979) told the Guardian:

“There are good reasons for acknowledging the UK’s role with the US in 1953 in overthrowing democratic developments. By admitting that we were wrong to do so and damaged the steps that were developing towards a democratic Iran, we make reforms now a little more likely.”

Richard Norton-Taylor, the author of The State of Secrecy, a book about UK intelligence and the media, said:

“It is sad, absurd and, indeed, counterproductive for the British government to continue to hide behind its age-old mantra of ‘neither confirm nor deny’ and still refuse to admit MI6’s leading role in Mosadegh’s overthrow when so much, including official CIA documents, has been revealed about it for so many years.”

A new film, Coup 53, traces the history of the coup, focusing on a young British spy who played a pivotal role, Norman Darbyshire. Despite receiving rave reviews, director Taghi Amirani and veteran Hollywood editor Walter Murch have not been able to find a distributor, a fact they attribute to the continuing cloak of official UK secrecy.

END of UPDATE

“We have had the most bizarre and sinister attempts at suppressing both the contents of the film and its chances of getting distribution in many twisted incidents worthy of John le Carré.”

Taghi Amirani

The 1953 coup against Iran P.M. Mohammad Mosaddegh

In 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, in documents that also show how the British government tried to block the release of information about its own involvement in his overthrow.

On the 60th anniversary of an event often invoked by Iranians as evidence of western meddling, the US national security archive at George Washington University published a series of declassified CIA documents.

“The military coup that overthrew Mosaddegh and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government,” reads a previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled The Battle for Iran.

The documents, published on the archive’s website under freedom of information laws, describe in detail how the US – with British help – engineered the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain’s MI6.

Britain, and in particular Sir Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary, regarded Mosaddegh as a serious threat to its strategic and economic interests after the Iranian leader nationalised the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, latterly known as BP.

But the UK needed US support. The Eisenhower administration in Washington was easily persuaded. [The Guardian]

US officials have previously expressed regret about the coup but have fallen short of issuing an official apology. The British government has never acknowledged its role.

64 Years Later, CIA Details Long-Hidden Role in Iran Coup

The quiet release of long-awaited and long-hidden CIA documents offers key details on how the U.S. and Britain overthrew Iran’s democratic government in 1953, says the National Security Archives’ Malcolm Byrne.

“Coup 53 is about a vitally important historical event and horribly inglorious chapter in the postwar UK and US: the story of how, in 1953, Britain and the US teamed up to unseat the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh – who had nationalised British oil interests – and replace him with the skittish, preening and very biddable Shah of Iran. This cataclysmic meddling was the Book of Genesis in the bible of dirty tricks.”

The Guardian

Coup 53 – Official Trailer

Coup 53 is a 2019 British documentary about the 1953 Iranian coup d’état to overthrow Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, co-written and directed by Taghi Amirani and co-written and edited by Walter Murch.

Central to the documentary is a series of clips in which actor Ralph Fiennes reads from a transcript of an interview MI6 agent Norman Darbyshire gave to the Granada TV in 1985.

In this documentary — End of Empire — Darbyshire rashly asserted that Operation TP AJAX was effectively being run by the British.

Coup 53 concludes that his appearance was cut at MI6’s insistence but the transcript survived.

In mid-September 2020, Coup 53 was pulled from its digital distribution platforms… Due to an archive licensing issue.

Coup 53 became available again on digital platforms on 18 December 2020 after ITV granted a new archive license, conditional on 17 specific amendments to the film.

REFERENCES

CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup — The Guardian

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On This Day — CIA Operation TP/AJAX : The Iranian Coup d’État (August 19 1953)

70 Years Ago — CIA Operation TP/AJAX : The Iranian Coup d’État (August 19 1953) [UPDATE — Former Foreign Secretary : “The UK should finally acknowledge its leading role in the 1953 Iran Coup”]