Coup D Etat in Iran
The Iranian Coup d` état began in 1953 when the United Kingdom and the United States orchestrated the overthrow of the elected administration of then Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq and his complete cabinet from power.
The support of the coup was instrumented using bribery in an operation by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. for the Central Intelligence Agency. Britain was motivated in the coup by its desire to control the oil fields in Iran and contributed to the funding for the widespread bribery of the Iranian officials.
The project to overthrow the Iranian government was officially code named Operation Ajax. The coup eventually re-installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into the primary position of power.
The idea behind the coup was conceived by the United Kingdom who asked the United States President Harry S. Truman for America’s assistance. President Truman refused and when Dwight D. Eisenhower became president in 1953, the new administration agreed to participation in the coup.
Mosaddeq had decided that the Iranian government should begin to profit from the country’s vast oil reserves and took the necessary steps to nationalize the oil industry which was previously controlled by the British Petroleum Company.
Britain in turn pointed out that Iran was violating the company’s legal rights and began a worldwide boycott of Iran’s oil. This act forced Iran’s regime into a financial crisis. The monarchy supported by the United States and Britain invited western oil companies back into Iran.
During the British imperial period, Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar searched for ways in which to alleviate debts that he owed to Britain. During this time he granted Britain a 60 year long concession to search for oil in May 1901.
William Knox D’Arcy struck oil in Iran in May 1908, but financial hardships forced controlling interest to Burmah Oil Company, who incorporated the Anglo-Persian Oil Company which later became the British Petroleum Company.
British oil production in Iran went on for a short period of time. During World War I British troops occupied very strategic areas in Iran.
After Prime Minister Mosaddeq was forced from office on August 19, 1 1953 and replaced by Zahedi, the AIOC became the British Petroleum Company and briefly resumed operations in Iran with only a forty percent share in the new international consortium.
The British Petroleum Company continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
