IRAN AND THE SHADOW OF MOSSADEGH

IRAN is once again on the move. Its people have demonstrated a fighting commitment to democracy that has captured the world’s admiration since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which resulted in an elected Majlis (Parliament), albeit with a restricted vote, for the first time.

Ouote—‘Mossadegh gained enormous popularity in Iran because of his support over several decades for measures aimed at improving the conditions of the poor.

He attained world wide fame and support during the struggle against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

He was a man of endearing eccentricities. Imposingly tall, thin as a rake, with a fringe of bushy, white hair ringing and defining a distinguished baldness, he had an unusually prominent, aquiline nose and walked with a stooping gait, assisted by a cane. He was a celebrated hypochondriac. Although he lived to the age of 85, surviving years of imprisonment and died while still under house arrest, he claimed for much of his adult life while free, to be beset by undefined ailments which defied diagnoses.’

The Government, having been overthrown in 1953, Iran’s democratic urge stirred in 1979. Democracy was restored but an Islamic State was established with a Guardianship Council, not popularly elected, headed by a Supreme Leader holding a final authority over the government, parliament and elections. The rebellion in Iran arises from allegations of the rigging of the presidential elections.


Mohamed Mossadegh

On May 6, 1951, Mohamed Mossadegh, then 67 years old, was appointed Prime Minister of Iran. The Anglo Iranian Oil Company had been nationalized five days before, on May 1. The campaign to nationalize it had been led by Mossadegh and the Majlis and had wide popular support in Iran because of the proven, large scale robbery and exploitation of Iran by the Company which kept the people of Iran in poverty while enriching the oil profiteers.

It was the necessity to defend the integrity of Iran and the nationalization, threatened by the British, that created the conditions for the appointment of Iran’s best known and most courageous patriot as Prime Minister.

He was overthrown by a well documented and publicized CIA inspired and organized coup on August 19, 1953, finally acknowledged by President Obama in his Cairo Speech recently.

This led to the notorious and violent dictatorship of Mohamed Reza Shah, who had appointed him as Prime Minister and had conspired in his overthrow. The Shah was himself overthrown in the popular uprising of 1979 and, after a brief period during which supporters of Mossadegh held power, Islamic activists took over and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Mohamed Mossadegh had royal lineage, was a member of the Persian aristocracy and was expected to join the governing elite like his relatives before him. He studied law in France and Switzerland and believed in a constitutional democracy.

He taught law, attained recognition as an academic and was a member of the Majlis supporting popular causes.

Mossadegh gained enormous popularity in Iran because of his support over several decades for measures aimed at improving the conditions of the poor.

He attained world wide fame and support during the struggle against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

He was a man of endearing eccentricities. Imposingly tall, thin as a rake, with a fringe of bushy, white hair ringing and defining a distinguished baldness, he had an unusually prominent, aquiline nose and walked with a stooping gait, assisted by a cane. He was a celebrated hypochondriac. Although he lived to the age of 85, surviving years of imprisonment and died while still under house arrest, he claimed for much of his adult life while free, to be beset by undefined ailments which defied diagnoses.

Even so, he was known to occasionally discard his cane, shrug off his apparent infirmities and walk briskly and joyously to greet people special to him.

He was given to such impassioned speeches in the Majlis that he often burst into tears or dropped to the floor in a dead faint.

More often he exploded into uproarious laughter when amused. While Prime Minister he lived as modestly as before, in his own small apartment, and conducted much of government business from his “sick” bed.

He took no salary. Yet, it is the legacy of Mossadegh which moves Iran to protect its independence and insist on reform and democracy, passions hardly understood in the US whose actions were instrumental in creating it.

The 1979 revolution again liberated the national aspirations of the Iranian people. The seizure of the US embassy and the taking of hostages, still a traumatic event for Americans, were generated by fear of a repeat of US intervention.

Knowledge of the US role in the events of 1953 having been kept from the American people, they could not understand what was happening. After the 1979 revolution the US armed and instigated Iraq to attack Iran in a war between 1980 and 1988 in which poison gas was used by Iraq and in which Iran lost one million people.

Iran’s fear was intensified in recent years by the threats of bombing by the US and Israel on the ground that it is building a nuclear weapon even though US intelligence estimates conclude that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons programme several years ago.

The threats have multiplied, not merely because of unsubstantiated fears, but as a result of Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East and Iraq, its support for the Palestinians and its challenge to the monopoly of power held by Israel.

It is these factors, rather than the now discredited allegation of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, disputed by knowledgeable analysts, that have influenced the attitude of the West and Israel towards Iran.

President Obama’s more realistic policy to Iran and acknowledgement of US’s responsibility for the overthrow of the Mossadegh Government in 1953 can be the beginning of improved relations, if regime change is removed from the US agenda and Iran’s fears are adequately addressed. The people of Iran want good relations with the US.

The people of Guyana and of the world must stand in defence of Iran, its sovereignty and the rights of its people.

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