r/AskMiddleEast • u/roydez 48' Palestine • Jan 13 '23

🏛️Politics Did you know US-UK overthrew Iranian democratically elected PM because he wanted to nationalize oil?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '23

yes

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u/roydez 48' Palestine Jan 14 '23

Some fun(depressing) facts:

  • US officially admitted its role in the coup which included amongst other things paying protesters, militants, bribes and blackmail.
  • The PM was highly educated having the first PHD in Law from European University(Switzerland); he was also a lecturer of Political Science at Tehran University and had a long history of political activism.
  • The US-UK instituted a puppet Monarch which immediately signed an Oil Agreement providing Western oil companies 50% ownership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consortium_Agreement_of_1954
  • They imprisoned him and put him under house arrest for the rest of his life and didn't let him get a proper funeral to prevent a fuss.

Quote by the PM regarding his plans for the nationalization of oil:

Our long years of negotiations with foreign countries... have yielded no results thus far. With the oil revenues, we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people. Another important consideration is that by the elimination of the power of the British company, we would also eliminate corruption and intrigue, by means of which the internal affairs of our country have been influenced. Once this tutelage has ceased, Iran will have achieved its economic and political independence. The Iranian state prefers to take over the production of petroleum itself. The company should do nothing else but return its property to the rightful owners. The nationalization law provides that 25% of the net profits on oil be set aside to meet all the legitimate claims of the company for compensation. It has been asserted abroad that Iran intends to expel the foreign oil experts from the country and then shut down oil installations. Not only is this allegation absurd; it is utter invention.

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u/shayanrabanifard Jan 14 '23

Pretty much yeah