Back to the future

Robert Tait looks back more than 50 years to the last time Iran was referred to the world's official guardian of peace and security

Robert Tait

Wednesday March 15, 2006

Guardian Unlimited

Standing before the hallowed chambers of the UN security council, the charismatic Iranian leader confronted his adversaries with the combative defiance that was his hallmark. Bullying foreigners, he proclaimed, wanted to deny Iran its legitimate right to an energy resource vital to its future. No amount of international pressure would force his government to retreat from a position that had the full support of the great Iranian nation. To almost universal surprise, security council members were swayed by the demagogic statesman's arguments and voted to shelve the resolution rather than take punitive action against Iran. It was a devastating blow for a prevailing western worldview whose sense of self-righteousness had never before suffered such a sharp reverse. With Iran's nuclear case finally going before the council this week, it is a scenario the US and EU hope is too far fetched to become reality as they endeavour to force Tehran to abandon a programme they believe is designed to produce an atomic bomb. Yet it is not fantasy, but a description of what happened the last time Iran was referred to the security council. The date was October 1951, and the Iranian leader addressing the august body was Mohammed Mossadeq, the democratically-elected prime minister, who had outraged Britain by nationalising his country's British-owned oil industry. After moving warships to the Persian gulf and imposing a blockade intended to cripple the Iranian economy, Britain sought to regain control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company by having Iran referred to the security council, with the humiliating results just described. But that wasn't the end of the story. Having failed to achieve their ends through diplomacy, the British resorted to sinister underhand means. With official approval, the British secret service - the forerunner of MI6 - colluded with the CIA to stage a coup in which Mossadeq's government was toppled and the rule of the last shah, until then teetering and uncertain, re-established.

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