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Compensate Iran for 1953 Coup?

(Commentary) Michael Rubin - In 2000, when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright obliquely apologized to Iran for the CIA role in the 1953 coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, she hoped that it might pave the way for reconciliation. Instead, the Iranian government turned around and argued that, with the U.S. admitting its guilt, that it should then compensate Iran. Hence, the fact that the Iranian parliament is once again demanding reparations now for the 1953 coup should come as no surprise. The backdrop to the 1953 coup was Mosaddeq's nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the forerunner to British Petroleum). After seizing the company in which the British had spent the equivalent of billions in today's dollars, he adamantly refused to negotiate. Moreover, Mosaddeq is depicted as a democrat, but he was only a democrat in the sense that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was: those who disagreed with him might find themselves subject to mob violence or worse. That and his flirtation with the Soviet Union were among the reasons that not only the U.S. but the Iranian Army and the Iranian clergy cooperated in his ouster. As for the popular notion that the coup ousted the democratically-elected prime minister and installed the dictatorial Shah, the Shah had been the leader of Iran since 1941. Mosaddeq was pushing for his ouster. The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
2016-05-20 00:00:00
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