Word: anglo-iranian
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...finger at Britain for its troubles, the Iranian government can tap a rich vein of mistrust for its former imperial ruler. Many Iranians remember the British-brokered Treaty of Gulistan, under which Iran was forced to give up land to Russia in 1813, as one of the most humiliating episodes in their country's history. Hostilities sparked again in 1941, when the U.K. invaded Iran and exiled the country's leader on suspicion of pro-German sympathies. Furthering the mistrust, when Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq dared to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company - in which Britain had a majority...
...first one begins with the rise of a member of Iran's parliament, Mohammed Mossadegh, an impassioned speaker and popular politician who had long chafed at British domination over his country's oil. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., partly owned by the British government and a predecessor of today's British Petroleum, held the concession for all of Iran. It set production rates and prices as well as Iran's token share of the proceeds. Mossadegh sought a fifty-fifty sharing agreement, which was then becoming the common arrangement between other oil-producing countries and U.S. companies. The British refused...
...next serious test began in 1951, when the popularly elected government of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. In 1953, right-wing monarchists in the army unsuccessfully attempted to depose Mossadegh; the Shah was forced to flee to Rome. A few days later, however, a countercoup sponsored by the CIA restored him to the throne. The Shah launched a ruthless purge, particularly of remnants of the Communist Tudeh Party, which had been outlawed in 1948. He also organized a secret-police network, SAVAK, that was to become one of the most notorious in the world...
...shattered on March 7, the following year. While attending a funeral at a mosque General Raumara was shot dead. His assassin was a member of a militant religious group called the Devotees of Islam. Eight days later the Iranian parliament passed a bill providing for the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company...
...failed to consider one very important factor in the situation, the Majlis or Iranian parliament, which voted soon afterwards for the immediate seizure of the oil industry and then named Mossadeq prime minister in April. Mossadeq immediately began talks with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company to finalize nationalization and the following year commenced his attack on the royal prerogatives. His actions were seen by the CIA as evidence of a desire to create a communist state. Dulles stated bluntly later that "Communist...stooges took over power in Iran in 1953." This misinterpretation of Mossadeq's nationalism followed from cold...