Mossadeq, Muhammad

(b. 1882; d. 5 Mar. 1967) Iranian; Prime Minister 1951 – 3 Son of a Qajar dynasty Finance Minister and a Qajar princess, Mossadeq's shock at the terms of the Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1919 decided him on a policy of Persia for the Persians.

A member of the National Assembly from 1915, he held several brief government appointments between 1920 and 1924, but was forced out of public life by Reza Shah in 1928 until 1941. Upon his re-election in 1944, Mossadeq introduced a bill to prevent oil concessions to foreigners being made without the Assembly's approval. The Persian-USSR oil agreement went unratified as a result in 1947. In 1949 he formed the National Front from diverse factions opposed to foreign influence and increasing royal power. As chairman of the Assembly's oil commission, he secured rejection of the government's oil concession to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1950 and championed nationalization of the British-controlled oil industry. The Assembly implemented this in April 1951 and, after the assassination of the pro-Western Premier by Islamist National Front members, he became Prime Minister in May 1951 on a wave of nationalist fervour and opposition to misgovernment. A grave political and economic crisis then ensued; Mossadeq attacked the monarchy by seizing control of the armed forces and a world boycott of Iranian oil led by Britain resulted in almost total loss of oil revenues. After dismissing Mossadeq, the Shah was forced to reinstate him following street demonstrations in 1952. The crisis ended when Mossadeq was deposed in 1953 and the Shah restored to his throne in a military coup engineered by the CIA and the British Secret Service. Mossadeq was admired by nationalists and fundamentalists alike of later generations for his fervent, though unsuccessful, stand against the West and Iranian monarchy.