In a message posted on his X account on Tuesday night on the anniversary of Mosaddegh’s birth, Baqaei described the 1953 coup as a turning point in the history of US-Iran relations, arguing that the Iranian people have endured decades of American intervention, sanctions, threats, and military pressure since Washington and London orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government.
“Today, 19 May (29 Ordibehesht), marks the birthday of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, the famed Iranian Prime Minister whose government was violently overthrown in a coup engineered and backed by the United States and UK, solely for his unwavering defense of Iran’s national interests, his fierce resistance to foreign domination, and his refusal to allow the plunder of Iran’s national resources,” the spokesman said.
“American officials repeatedly speak of ‘47 years’ of confrontation with Iran. This is a deliberate distortion of history; the US hostility toward the Iranian nation did not begin in 1979 — it began in 1953. For more than 73 years, the Iranian people have endured a long record of American intervention, sanctions, threats, and military aggression,” Baqaei added.
“Revisiting Dr. Mosaddegh’s legacy and the 1953 Anglo-American coup delivers a clear and timeless lesson: the only true path to national dignity, sovereignty, and sustainable progress is resolute insistence on sovereign rights and political independence,” he stated.
In August 1953, the British and American intelligence agencies initiated a coup by the Iranian military, setting off a series of events, including riots in the streets of the capital, Tehran, which led to the overthrow and arrest of Mosaddeq.
Mosaddeq, who was convicted of treason by a court martial, served three years in solitary confinement and then died under house arrest in 1967.
His overthrow, which is still given as a reason for Iranians' mistrust of the UK and the US, consolidated the Shah's rule for the following 26 years until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, led by Imam Khomeini, which toppled the US-backed monarchy.
The Iranian premier had played a key role in the country’s 1951 movement that resulted in the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry, which had been mainly controlled by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), now known as BP.
Experts say the 1953 coup, known as the 28 Mordad coup, was aimed at making sure the Iranian monarchy would safeguard the West's oil interests in the country.