Mohammad Mosaddegh (16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author and lawyer who served as the prime minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, elected by the 16th Majlis. He was elected to the Iranian parliament in 1923 and served through a contentious 1952 election into the 17th Iranian Majlis, until his government was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état aided by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom (MI6) and the United States (CIA), led by Kermit Roosevelt Jr. As prime minister, he implemented policies that came to be known as Mosaddeghism.
Before its removal from power, his administration introduced a range of social and political measures such as social security, land reforms and higher taxes including the introduction of taxation on the rent of land. His time as prime minister was marked by the clash with the British government, known as the Abadan Crisis, following the nationalisation of the Iranian oil industry, which had been built by the British on Persian lands since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC/AIOC), later known as British Petroleum (BP).
In the aftermath of the overthrow, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi consolidated power and negotiated the Consortium Agreement of 1954 with the British, which gave split ownership of Iranian oil production between Iran and Western companies until 1979. Mosaddegh's National Front was accordingly suppressed in the undemocratically manipulated 1954 general election and he was subsequently charged with treason, imprisoned for three years, then put under house arrest until his death and was buried in his own home in order to prevent a political furor.
In 2013, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States government formally acknowledged its role in the coup as being a part of its foreign policy initiatives, including paying protesters and bribing officials.
Early life, education and political career
Mosaddegh was born to a prominent family of high officials in Ahmadabad, near Tehran, on June 16, 1882; his father, Mirza Hideyatu'llah Ashtiani, was the finance minister under the Qajar dynasty, and his mother, Princess Malek Taj Najm-es-Saltaneh, was the granddaughter of the reformist Qajar prince Abbas Mirza, and a great-granddaughter of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. When Mosaddegh's father died in 1892 of cholera, his uncle was appointed the tax collector of the Khorasan province and was bestowed with the title of Mosaddegh-ol-Saltaneh by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar.
Mosaddegh himself later bore the same title, by which he was still known to some long after titles were abolished. Mosaddegh's mother wanted her son to marry his cousin, daughter of her sister and Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar. In 1901, Mosaddegh married Zahra Emami (1879–1965), a granddaughter of Naser al-Din Shah through her mother Zi'a es-Saltaneh.
In 1909, Mosaddegh pursued education abroad in Paris, France, where he studied at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He studied there for two years, returning to Iran because of illness in 1911. After two months, Mosaddegh returned to Europe to study a Doctorate of Laws (doctorat en Droit) at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. In June 1913, Mosaddegh received his doctorate and in doing so became the first Iranian to receive a PhD in law from a European university.
Mosaddegh taught at the Tehran School of Political Science at the start of World War I before beginning his political career.
Mosaddegh started his political career with the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–07. At the age of 24, he was elected from Isfahan to the newly inaugurated Persian Parliament, the Majlis of Iran. He was unable to assume his seat, because he had not reached the legal age of 30.
During this period he also served as deputy leader of the Society of Humanity, under Mostowfi ol-Mamalek.
In protest of the Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1919, he relocated to Switzerland, from where he returned the following year after being invited by the new Iranian prime minister, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir-ed-Dowleh), to become his minister of justice. While en route to Tehran, he was asked by the people of Shiraz to become the governor of the Fars province.
In 1921, he was appointed finance minister, in the government of Ahmad Qavam (Qavam os-Saltaneh). In June 1923, he became the foreign minister in the government of Moshir-ed-Dowleh. He then became governor of the Azerbaijan Province. In 1923, he was re-elected to the Majlis.
In 1925, the supporters of Reza Khan in the Majlis proposed legislation to dissolve the Qajar dynasty and appoint Reza Khan the new Shah. Mosaddegh voted against such a move, arguing that such an act was a subversion of the 1906 Iranian constitution. He gave a speech in the Majlis, praising Reza Khan's achievements as prime minister while encouraging him to respect the constitution and stay as the prime minister. On 12 December 1925, the Majlis deposed the young Ahmad Shah Qajar and declared Reza Shah the new monarch of the Imperial State of Persia, and the first shah of the Pahlavi dynasty. Mosaddegh then retired from politics, due to disagreements with the new regime.
In 1941, Reza Shah Pahlavi was forced by the British to abdicate in favour of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1944, Mosaddegh was once again elected to parliament. This time he took the lead of Jebhe Melli (National Front of Iran, created in 1949), an organisation he had founded with nineteen others such as Hossein Fatemi, Ahmad Zirakzadeh, Ali Shayegan and Karim Sanjabi, aiming to establish democracy and end the foreign presence in Iranian politics, especially by nationalising the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's (AIOC) operations in Iran. In 1947 Mosaddegh once again announced retirement, after an electoral-reform bill he had proposed failed to pass through Majlis.
On 28 April 1951, the Shah confirmed Mosaddegh as Prime Minister after the Majlis (Parliament of Iran) elected Mosaddegh by a vote of 79–12. After a period of assassinations by Fada'iyan-e Islam and political unrest by the National Front, the Shah was aware of Mosaddegh's rising popularity and political power. Demonstrations erupted in Tehran after Mosaddegh was elected, with crowds further invigorated by the speeches of members from the National Front.
There was a special focus on the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the heavy involvement of foreign actors and influences in Iranian affairs. Although Iran was not officially a colony or a protectorate, it was still heavily controlled by foreign powers beginning with concessions provided by the Qajar Shahs and leading up to the oil agreement signed by Reza Shah in 1933.
The new administration introduced a wide range of social reforms: unemployment compensation was introduced, factory owners were ordered to pay benefits to sick and injured workers, and peasants were freed from forced labour in their landlords' estates. In 1952, Mosaddegh passed the Land Reform Act, which forced landlords to pay a 20% tax on their revenue, half of which was placed in a development fund, while the rest went to the sharecropping tenants. This development fund paid for various projects such as public baths, rural housing, and pesticides.