UK’s lead role in 1953 exposed

A recently discovered transcript of an interview with a British intelligence officer who played a leading role in the 1953 coup that restored powers to the shah of Iran claims that Britain was the driving force behind the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.

On the anniversary of the UK-US-led coup d'etat that removed Iran's democratically elected leader, an interview with Norman Darbyshire - head of the MI6 spy agency's "Persia" station in Cyprus at the time - was published.

In his account, Darbyshire said Britain had convinced the US to take part in the coup.

Darbyshire's comments came from an interview with the creators of an episode of 1985 British series End of Empire. His interview was not used directly in the programme, as he did not want to appear on camera.

The transcript, long forgotten, was recently unearthed during the making of a new documentary called Coup 53, scheduled for release today, the 67th anniversary of the coup.

Darbyshire died in 1993. The transcript of his interview was published on Monday by the National Security Archive at George Washington University in the United States.

The coup - known as Operation Ajax - eventually succeeded on August 19, 1953. Mossadegh was tried and kept under house arrest until his death 14 years later.

"Even though it has been an open secret for decades, the UK government has not officially admitted its fundamental role in the coup," Taghi Amirani, the director of Coup 53, was quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying.