NOURNEWS- The 1953 military coup against the democratically-elected government in Iran was a major rallying point for anti-American sentiment in the country that culminated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, says a US-based political analyst.
In an interview with the Press TV website, American political scientist and author Mark Gasiorowski said the US-instigated coup caused the Iranian nation to suffer for years under the “authoritarian rule” of the West-backed Pahlavi regime.
Iran on Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of the Anglo-American orchestrated coup that toppled the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the monarchist dictatorship.
That coup saved the throne of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the son of Reza Pahlavi, who is known to have been brought to – and pushed out of – power by the UK decades earlier.
The violence-marred coup on August 19, 1953, resulted in hundreds of casualties and ushered in 26 years of the Pahlavi rule, which was ended by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Gasiorowski, who is the author of US Foreign Policy and the Shah (Cornell University Press, 1991) and co-editor (with Malcolm Byrne) of Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse University Press, 2005), said the early 1950s marked the beginning of the Cold War era, and the US at the time was worried over the risk of a Soviet takeover in Iran in the absence of the Pahlavi regime.
“The main US motives were to reduce the possibility of a Soviet or Tudeh takeover in Iran, which would threaten Persian Gulf oil facilities, and to try out the CIA's recently-developed covert action capabilities,” he remarked in conversation with the Press TV website.
He said geostrategic interests rather than commercial interests were behind the US decision to orchestrate the coup against the democratically-elected Iranian government.
For Britain, he hastened to add, commercial interests were the key factor for instigating the coup.
Gasiorowski said the United Kingdom saw its oil interests in Iran and the wider region at risk in the wake of Mosaddeq’s nationalization of the country’s oil industry.
“Britain sought to salvage its investment in Iranian oil, and to discourage threats to British investments elsewhere, especially the Suez Canal,” he stated.
The American political pundit who has served as West Asia advisor at the US State Department said, although the UK was the main beneficiary of the coup, it actually played a secondary role in it.
“While Britain and certain Iranian actors (Pahlavis) were involved in the coup, the predominant and essential role was played by the US. That role was crucial in planning, financing, and carrying out the coup,” he told the Press TV website.
Gasiorowski noted that Britain had several times attempted to bring down Mosaddeq but to no avail, which limited its ability to stage a coup against the Iranian prime minister.
Decades later, the US finally admitted its role in the coup, and even declassified intelligence documents showing the coup, named Operation Ajax, was a joint US-UK operation.
Gasiorowski said London should do the same, as its involvement in the coup is now an open secret.
“After 70 years, I think it would be a good idea for the UK to admit its role in the coup. And, more importantly, it should release at least some of its documents on the coup, as the US government has done,” he told the Press TV website.
On how the coup impacted Iran’s political and social landscape, Gasiorowski said it “ushered in a 25-year period of authoritarian rule under the Shah”.
Following the coup, he said the US enjoyed great influence on the Pahlavi ruler at the expense of millions of ordinary Iranians.
“In the short term, the coup left the Shah's regime very dependent on the US. But as knowledge of the US role in the coup spread among Iranians, it created growing outrage among them,” he said.
“This helped feed the anti-US and anti-Shah sentiment that led to the 1979 revolution, though of course, it was not solely responsible.”
Press TV