The last time the US tried — and succeeded — in bringing about regime change in Iran

Monarchist protesters march in the center of Tehran on August 26, 1953, after the coup d’état that restored the monarchy in the country. Getty Images via BBC Iranians know this day as 28 Mordad, the date on which a coup d’état marked a turning point in the country’s history. It was August 19, 1953 when an operation orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United States (CIA) and the United Kingdom (MI6) deposed Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had been democratically elected. The coup, supported by the Americans and British, not only redefined the destiny of the Iranian people, but also proved to be one of the most crucial events in the modern history of the Middle East: it laid the foundation for the adoption of an anti-Western foreign policy in Iran and fundamentally altered regional geopolitics. “The coup profoundly shaped modern Iranian politics, and Mosaddegh’s fall left a lasting legacy of anger towards the United States in particular and the West in general,” highlights Professor Simin Fadaee, Chair of Sociology at the University of Manchester, England. See the videos that are trending on g1 A mission at the beginning of the Cold War Today we know what happened on August 19, 1953 because, in 2013, 60 years after the events, the CIA admitted for the first time its involvement in the coup against Mohammad Mossadegh. In a series of documents that were no longer confidential and were published by the American State Department, it is possible to know the details about the operation that the CIA called Operation Ajax, and MI6, Operation Boot. “The military coup that overthrew Mossadegh and his National Front cabinet was carried out under the direction of the CIA as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government,” one of the recently released documents stated. The operation was directed by high-ranking CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of former President Theodore Roosevelt). After conducting a study, titled Factors Involved in the Overthrow of Mossadegh, Roosevelt concluded: “A coup in Iran is possible.” Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh speaks to a crowd in Tehran on October 2, 1951. Getty Images via BBC After World War II, the Cold War was underway, and in the 1950s, Iran was strategically crucial to the West. First, the country is located in a geographically and politically crucial area to prevent Soviet access to the Persian Gulf and the spread of communism in the region. Second, Iran’s lucrative oil reserves, discovered in 1909, were effectively controlled by the British Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Company (AIOC), later known as British Petroleum, and now as BP. AIOC managed production under a concession agreement, with exclusive and lucrative rights to explore and extract oil in much of Iran. These priorities, however, were threatened when Mohammad Mossadegh was democratically elected prime minister in 1951. Mohammad Mossadegh and the Nationalization of Oil Although Iran remained a constitutional monarchy, with Shah Reza Pahlavi as head of state, Mossadegh’s election marked a significant step in the country’s democratic evolution. Mossadegh was a moderate left-wing politician whose main goal in power was to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. The move was extremely popular in Iran, but provoked great consternation in the West, particularly in the United Kingdom, over the future of what was then its largest and most profitable company in the world. “The United Kingdom tried to reverse this nationalization, which threatened its economic and strategic influence in Iran, especially after the loss of the Indian colony”, explains Simin Fadaee. “And the United States feared that Mossadegh would open the door to greater Soviet influence, especially given the presence of a significant communist and socialist movement in the country.” The British attempted to negotiate with Mossadegh, but the prime minister rejected any foreign involvement in the Iranian oil industry. The United Kingdom then sought help from the United States, arguing that Mossadegh posed a threat to the fight against communism. And so began the plot to overthrow the Iranian prime minister. The British plan was to replace Mossadegh with General Fazlollah Zahedi—whom they considered a more flexible ally—to act under orders from the shah, who was sympathetic to Western interests and was staunchly anti-communist. Released American documents reveal that Kermit Roosevelt arrived in Iran in July 1953. He immediately met with Iranian agents, organized support from Army officers, and sought allies among the Islamic clergy. Roosevelt also communicated with Shah Reza Pahlavi, who had recently fled the country after a previous attempt to overthrow the prime minister failed. Mohammed Mossadegh meeting with his cabinet in 1951 to discuss the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. Getty Images via BBC As Simin Fadaee explains, the CIA and MI6 operation was “carefully planned.” “It combined political manipulation, psychological warfare and street riots. They financed and organized opposition figures and groups among influential politicians, military personnel and clergy, and carried out large-scale propaganda campaigns to portray Mossadegh as a threat to stability,” he details. Protests and street riots were also orchestrated, which quickly sowed chaos and destabilized the country. Amid the turmoil, General Zahedi mobilized the army to restore order and, through military force, overthrew the government and arrested the prime minister. The documents show that several clerics were involved in the coup, including prominent Ayatollah Abol Gashem Kashani, who played a key role. Mossadegh was tried for treason and sentenced to three years in prison. He was later placed under house arrest and spent the rest of his life in this condition until his death in 1967. The Shah’s return and the 1979 revolution Reza Pahlavi returned to power in 1953 as the monarch of Iran. He assumed absolute power and ushered in an era of repression and human rights violations. “The coup laid the foundations for a long period of authoritarianism, the consequences of which we still see today”, says Professor Fadaee. “Reza Pahlavi quickly consolidated his control by creating, with the help of the CIA, the infamous intelligence agency Sazman-e Ettel’at va Amniyat-e Keshvar (Savak). He banned all opposition parties and silenced and arrested activists involved in the oil nationalization movement, among others.” The shah ruled for more than two decades, a period that coincided with rapid economic growth — for some Iranians — that made Iran one of the most unequal countries in the world. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi received by soldiers at Tehran airport on August 23, 1953, when he returned from exile. Getty Images via BBC Thus, the fall of Mossadegh and the consolidation of the shah’s power laid the groundwork for the rise of Iranian nationalist fervor that led to the 1979 revolution, which overthrew the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy and replaced it with an Islamic republic. Led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the new theocratic regime instituted strict religious law and severe social restrictions, reversed pro-Western policies, and adopted an ideological foreign policy that radically altered regional geopolitics. As Simin Fadaee explains, “Soon after the revolution, the Islamic republic quickly established its own secret police, the Sazman-e Ettelaat Va Amniat Meli Iran (Savama), which used many of the same brutal methods as the Savak.” The consequences of the revolution After the 1979 revolution, hostilities began in relations between the United States and Iran. In November of that year, a group of protesters stormed the US embassy in Tehran, and took diplomats and other American citizens hostage. The kidnapping lasted 444 days. During this period, in April 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran, something that remains to this day. In response to the attack on the embassy and the kidnapping of American citizens, Washington imposed severe economic sanctions against Iran. Additionally, the United States supported Iraq during the eight-year war that country waged against Iran in the 1980s, a conflict that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and severely damaged the country’s political and economic reconstruction efforts. For decades, American sanctions have had a huge impact on the Iranian economy, which in recent years has been plagued by runaway inflation and currency devaluation, which has put severe pressure on household budgets. In March 2025, the World Bank estimated that between 35% and 40% of Iranians lived below the poverty line. Simin Fadaee, a professor at the University of Manchester, says that every year on the anniversary of the 1953 coup, she and many other Iranians wonder what the country’s fate would have been if the US and UK had not conspired to overthrow the country’s fledgling democracy. Are Iranians still fighting for their basic rights? Would relations between Iran and the West be better? Would the current US and Israeli attacks on Iran have been avoided? “It is not easy to speculate in retrospect about what might have happened, but I believe that, internationally, the 1953 coup paved the way for a series of imperialist interventions and the overthrow of democratically elected governments across the Global South,” says Fadaee. “Perhaps the United States would have thought twice before planning coups d’état in Guatemala in 1954, the Congo in 1961, or Chile in 1973 if it had not succeeded in overthrowing Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran.” “Domestically, I believe Iran’s path to democracy and social justice would have been much smoother, although certainly not necessarily easy,” she says. “But today, as they fight for a better future, many Iranians can clearly see how, 70 years after the coup that put an end to democracy, internal conflicts are still influenced by foreign powers”, concludes the professor.

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