David Owen, former foreign secretary of England (1977-1979), wants the UK to recognize MI6’s role in overthrowing Iran’s last democratic leader. He believes it is permissible, seventy years later, because it benefits “British credibility with regard to the current Iranian reform movement”. To write in the English newspaper Watchman.
Ten years earlier, the United States had acknowledged the role of its intelligence service, the CIA, in the 1953 coup. Documents uncovered afterward showed Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was deposed in a joint CIA-MI6 operation. The official British line has so far been refusing to comment on intelligence matters.
When Mossadegh became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951, he immediately began nationalizing the country’s Western oil companies. This was against British oil interests. Then MI6 plotted to have him removed.
According to David Owen, there are good reasons to finally be recognized for this role. “By acknowledging that we were wrong and harmed the steps of Iranian democracy at that time, we are making reforms in this period more likely.”
