Iran19 August, 20262 min read
CIA Confirms Role in 28 Mordad 1332 Coup as U.S. National Archives Releases TPAJAX Files
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
CIA designed, executed, and managed the consequences of the 1953 coup against Mossadegh. US National Archives released TPAJAX files confirming CIA involvement.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Iran Reviews US Negotiation Proposals As Pakistan And Qatar Mediate Strait Of Hormuz Dispute →
Declassified CIA files revive
Khabar Online says that on August 19, 2013 [28 Mordad 1332], the U.S. National Archives published “fresh documents from the CIA’s declassified files” about the 28 Mordad 1332 coup in Iran, and that the CIA confirmed its role in the 1953 coup in Iran.
The same Khabar Online account says the documents “explicitly reference the operation known as ‘TPAJAX’” and provide details about Kermit Roosevelt, attempts to undermine Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, and actions taken after the overthrow.
Khabar Online also says the National Archives urged the declassification and release of remaining classified documents, while describing the release as coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh.
The article further states that U.S. and U.K. involvement in Mossadegh’s removal has long been publicly known, but that the released documents include what it says is “CIA’s first official admission of its role in planning and executing the coup.”
Iranian officials condemn
Mehr News Agency reports that Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi marked the anniversary of the 1953 coup by calling it “direct U.S. and British interference in the Iranian nation's right to self-determination.” In the same Mehr News Agency post, Gharibabadi wrote, “Foreign intervention in the fate of a nation, under whatever name, is colonialism and aggression against the people's right to sovereignty.”
A separate Nour News item similarly frames the 1953 coup as “a direct foreign intervention in Iran's right to determine its own fate,” and says the site’s anniversary commentary ties the issue to sovereignty. Press TV marks August 19, 1953 as the day when an Anglo-American-backed coup overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, describing the operation as carried out jointly by the American CIA and British MI6.
Oil, sovereignty, and aftermath
Mehr News Agency’s anniversary framing is echoed by Tasnim News Agency’s account that the 28 Mordad 1332 coup involved a “joint operation by the United States and Britain,” and that Iran now faces another conflict with the United States in which “a significant part still smells of oil.”
Tasnim says that after the coup “an international consortium was formed, and Iran’s oil exports returned to the global market,” and that “American companies collectively holding 40 percent of the consortium’s stake.”
Tasnim also quotes a CIA memorandum dated March 14, 1951 stating, “Iran is in a key strategic position. Iran’s oil is of high importance to the British economy and Western Europe.”
Press TV adds that the coup’s oil dispute centered on Iran’s effort to regain control over natural resources, and says Mosaddegh’s government sought to renegotiate arrangements and establish greater Iranian control over the country’s oil wealth.