March 13, 2026 | 04:56 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - On a Saturday just before midnight, August 15, 1953, a convoy of trucks packed with soldiers and two jeeps rolls through the streets of Tehran, Iran. The air is unusually humid, but a crescent moon glows in the clear sky.
Colonel Nimatullah Nassiri, Commander of the Iranian Imperial Guard—the personal force of the Shah of Iran sat in the front jeep. In his pocket was a firman (decree) from the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, removing Mohammad Mossadegh from the post of prime minister. Nassiri was heading to Mossadegh's residence to deliver the decree and arrest him if he refused to step down.
Mohammad Mossadegh was a politician from a prominent family in Ahmedabad, near Tehran. Since 1924 he had been a member of parliament and was elected prime minister in 1951.
Mossadegh's rise unsettled Britain. Since the early 20th century, the British government had enjoyed a monopoly over the production and sale of Iran's crude oil through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) while leaving Iran mired in poverty. Iranians had long felt the injustice of this arrangement, so when Mossadegh promised to expel AIOC, his name quickly rose as that of a national hero.
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