Historian Highlights Churchill’s Role in 1953 Coup in Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian researcher referred to former British prime minister Winston Churchill as the one who worked out a compromise between London and Washington on the 1953 coup against the government of then Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq.
Churchill seems to be a popular figure in Iran though nobody has done more injustice to the Iranian nation than him, Yaqoub Tavakolli, a scholar and historian said.
The destructive role of Churchill in the 1953 coup has never been seriously discussed, he added, describing that as a crafty work of British historians.
The role of a person who coordinated the coup between Britain and the US has been always ignored, unfortunately, Tavakolli deplored.
While some in Iran may remember Churchill as a hero, the British politician was the mastermind of many plots against Iran, the researcher said, referring to Churchill’s leading role in helping Reza Shah Pahlavi ascend the throne, in the occupation of Iran during the Second World War, and in imposing sanctions on Iran and dispatching warships to threaten the country after nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.
Details of the coup need to be reviewed by the Iranian academic society to condemn the main figures behind the incident, Tavakolli concluded.
On August 19, 1953, the British and US intelligence agencies orchestrated a coup that toppled Mosaddeq after his epic success to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, which had been under British control through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
