Why did the Iran war start? | Sky News Explains

It's important to say that relations between the US and Iran didn't start in 1953. And Iran has its own rich history which precedes all of this. But to understand the dynamic between the US and the Islamic Republic, let's start at 1953. It was the year of a British and US back coup to overthrow the country's democratically elected and secular prime minister Muhammad Mosedc. >> He wanted to nationalize Iran's oil. That's Dominic Wagghorn, our international affairs editor, who's reported on Iran for decades. >> The British had effectively sort of sewn up Iran's oil very much in their interest and this was a direct threat to the British uh and they called on an American called on American help. >> Okay, we need a bit of context about oil. Iran has some of the biggest oil reserves in the world. And in the early 1900s, a former SHA, the monarch, made a deal with a British businessman that gave Britain the rights to explore and export a lot of Iran's oil. And the deal led to the creation of the Anglo Persian Company, which is the origins of where BP came from, British Petroleum. And you might be wondering, if it was about protecting British oil interests, then what's in it for the Americans? I would say it's a combination between the oil issue and and and communism. Uh oil was the main concern of the British and possibly communism was the main concern of the Americans and it was the strength of the Iranian Communist Party which was a homegrown party of course aligned to Moscow but very much the only structural party with a nationwide organization and more which probably swayed the Americans. So working with Iranian opposition groups, CIA operatives inside Iran and MI6 made a plan to overthrow the prime minister. >> There were CIA operatives that were that were uh controlling things and were managing things but it was very much an Iranian operation. There was a vast array of opponents of Mosedc. >> The result Mosedc was arrested, tried for treason and put in prison and the US backshar Muhammad Resa Palvi was restored to power and ruled Iran as an absolute monarch for the next 26 years. Even though the US now admits that it was involved in the coup, it took decades for an official confirmation to come out, but now declassified CIA documents show you just how involved the agency was. Take a look at this document titled the battle for Iran. It says here that the military coup that overthrew Mosedc in his national front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy conceived and approved at the highest levels of government. So while the coup helped restore British interests, it really brought US intervention in Iran into the picture.

The year 1953 is one of the key dates in US and Iran relations. It was the year of a British and US-backed coup to overthrow Iran's democratically elected and secular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadeq. The US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was restored to power and went on to rule as an absolute monarch for the next 26 years. In the latest episode of Sky News Explains, Olive Enokido-Lineham looks at the complex and long-standing rivalry between the United States and Iran, tracing the key historical events that have shaped their relationship and the current state of conflict in the Middle East. Click the link to watch or search Sky News Explains on YouTube: https://news.sky.com/video/why-did-the-iran-war-start-sky-news-explains-13516608 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/skynews Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skynews Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skynews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skynews Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skynews For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-news/id316391924?mt=8 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bskyb.skynews.android&hl=en_GB Listen to our new podcast This is Why, available for free here: https://podfollow.com/thisiswhy To enquire about licensing Sky News content, you can find more information here: https://news.sky.com/info/library-sales