A trial based on a class action lawsuit involving some 402,000 Iranians against six US nationals and legal entities over their suspected roles in the August 1953 coup has formally kicked off in a Tehran court.
“This court case is being held in line with the fulfillment of the rights of the Iranian people, and there is good cooperation between the government the judiciary,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a press conference Monday, commenting on the trial, and the anniversary of the US-UK backed coup against Mosaddegh.
“Documents which have been published show that this coup was carried out by the United States and Britain against the democratic process in Iran. This coup was an example of the obvious interference by these two governments, especially the United States, in Iran’s internal affairs, and the deprivation of the Iranian people of their rights,” Kanaani said.
“As Iran’s Supreme Leader has said, the disgraceful coup d’état of August 19, 1953 was the starting point of the hostility and enmity of the American government against Iran and the Iranian nation. Therefore, they must accept that they have a historical debt to the Iranian nation that will never disappear,” the spokesman added.
Proceedings in the case formally began Sunday, with Shami Aghdam, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, pointing to declassified documents implicating the CIA and MI6 in planning and executing the coup using both internal and external agents, and charging Washington and London with the violation of international principles and norms and interference in Iran’s internal affairs in a bid “to maintain their influence and power in the government” and to “secure their interests and loot the nation’s property.”
The coup marked the start of the US’s total subjugation of Iran, an era that “lasted for more than 25 years and inflicted costs, as well as material and spiritual damage, on the country,” Aghdam said, referring to the installation of the Shah of Iran of Iran after Mosaddegh’s ouster. The Shah was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
The US State Department has been informed of the proceedings and was formally invited to participate.
Iran has limited means by which it can force the US or its allies to pay compensation. Last year, for example, an Iranian court ordered the US to pay $50 billion for the January 2020 assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. Washington simply ignored the demands.
But Iran has other ways of recovering damages. This past March, on the basis of a court ruling on behalf of plaintiffs suffering from a rare and debilitating skin disease who were adversely affected by crushing US secondary sanctions, a judge ordered the confiscation of the cargo of a US-owned oil tanker that was seized in April 2023.
US Doesn't Deny 1953 Coup Role
Reams of documents detailing US and British intelligence services’ preparations for and involvement in the 1953 Iran coup (known in the US as Operation Ajax, and by Britain as Operation Boot) began to be declassified about a decade ago. In 2013, the US government formally acknowledged its role in the regime change operation. In 2017, additional documents were declassified confirming intimate British involvement in the coup, undermining decades of denials by London. Last year, the CIA admitted that the coup was undemocratic.
Prime Minister Mosaddegh became a target after backing the 1951 decision to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now known as BP), and amid concerns in the West that an independent, national liberation movement-inspired Iran might forge closer ties to the Soviet Union.
The US-UK plot included the stockpiling of enough arms and explosives to support a 10,000-man guerilla army for six months, and the payout of some $5.3 million (about $50 million today, adjusted for inflation), to marshal anti-Mosaddegh elements in the Iranian security services and the clergy.
Iran’s long memory of the 1953 coup isn’t relegated to history, with persistent US attempts to meddle in the country’s affairs, stir up unrest under a broad array of pretexts, and funding and other support for monarchist and other elements keeping Tehran on its toes looking out for fresh provocations
In his remarks Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirmed that Iran was aware of a report recently released by Chinese Foreign Ministry detailing the US government’s global efforts to interfere in and subvert other countries’ political systems. The document, titled “The National Endowment for Democracy: What It Is and What It Does,” provides a comprehensive listing of recent US efforts to use the NED against adversaries and allies alike.
“We have been informed of the report’s release…are aware of the issue and have received relevant reports,” Kanaani said, adding that the 1953 coup in Iran was an example of the emptiness of US claims about “advocating human rights and democracy” while taking “destructive” actions interfering in other country’s internal affairs.