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Iran marks CIA-orchestrated 1953 coup d'état, slams US as ‘record-holder’ in wars, coups

Friday, 19 August 2022 1:15 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 19 August 2022 1:39 PM ]

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani attends a weekly press conference at the Foreign Ministry building in Tehran on August 15, 2022. (File photo by Tasnim)

Tehran says the United States is a record-holder of interfering in the affairs of independent states, naming the US-orchestrated coup of 1953 in Iran as an instance of that “dark history.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani took to Twitter on Friday to mark the 69th anniversary of the 1953 coup, which was organized by American and British spy agencies against the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq.

“The US administration holds the record for interference, military attack, and coup against independent states and governments.”

The 1953 coup against Iran’s government is a “clear example of this dark history,” the spokesman stated.

“Will the US administration revise its wrong and failed policy on Iran and respect the legitimate rights of the Iranian nation?”

Back in mid-July, the spokesman also reacted to former US national security adviser John Bolton’s confession that he had a role in planning a number of coups outside the States.

“Bolton's boasting about his role in attempted coups around the world made no one surprised,” wrote Nasser Kan'ani, noting that “nefarious activities of a notorious government” were an “open secret” that were “made public.”

For Iran, China, Russia, Bolton’s coup confession no surprise

The trio said intervention in the internal affairs of other countries is characteristic of the United States.

In August 1953, the British intelligence agency MI6 and its American counterpart CIA initiated the coup by the Iranian military, setting off a series of events, including riots on the streets of the capital Tehran, which led to the overthrow and arrest of Mosaddeq.

The coup, which was followed by the temporary rule of CIA- and MI6-approved General Fazlollah Zahedi, enabled the monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s return from exile in Italy. It also consolidated the monarch's rule for the following 26 years until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, led by Imam Khomeini, which toppled the Pahlavi regime.

Mosaddeq, who was convicted of treason by a court martial after the coup, served three years in solitary confinement and eventually died under house arrest in exile in 1967.

The historic overthrow, though, is still given as a reason for the Iranians' mistrust of Britain and the United States.

Experts say the upheaval, known in Iran as the ‘28 Mordad Coup’, was aimed at making sure the Iranian monarchy would safeguard the West's oil interests in the country.

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