London formally refuses to acknowledge a joint CIA-MI6 operation to topple Iran’s chief in 1953
The UK authorities ought to acknowledge its function in inciting the 1953 coup in Iran that toppled the democratically elected chief, Mohammad Mosadegh, former British international secretary David Owen has mentioned.
Owen, who served as London’s international secretary between 1977 and 1979, mentioned in feedback revealed by the Guardian on Tuesday that the UK admitting its half within the coup plot, 70 years in the past this week, would improve Britain’s credibility throughout the globe, and bolster the Iranian reform motion.
“There are good causes for acknowledging the UK’s function with the US in 1953 in overthrowing democratic developments,” Owen instructed the newspaper. “By admitting we have been fallacious to take action and broken the steps that have been creating in direction of a democratic Iran, we make reforms now just a little extra doubtless.”
America formally admitted its half within the scheme to overthrow Mosadegh – initially codenamed ‘Operation Boot’ – ten years in the past when it declassified a trove of intelligence paperwork which revealed it to be a joint operation by the CIA and MI6.
The UK’s official place is that it doesn’t touch upon issues of intelligence.
The UK first drafted the coup plans after Mosadegh was appointed as Iran’s prime minister in 1951 following the nationalisation of a British oil firm within the nation. Initially, the US authorities led by Harry Truman rejected British overtures. Nonetheless, prime minister Winston Churchill efficiently petitioned Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, to collaborate on the hassle.
In early 1953, the UK and US intelligence providers started planning the operation, which was renamed ‘Ajax.’ In accordance with declassified paperwork the operation sought regime change by means of the bribery of Iranian politicians, together with high-ranking safety and military officers, and large anti-Mossadegh propaganda that helped instigate a public revolt in 1953. The coup then introduced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi again to energy.
Owen argues, although, that the Western undermining of Iranian democracy immediately contributed to the shah’s regime subsequently falling within the Islamic Revolution of 1978.
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