Abadan Crisis Timeline - Mosaddeq Becomes Prime Minister

Mosaddeq Becomes Prime Minister

Year Date Event Significance
1951 April 29 Mosaddeq voted Prime Minister. Basks in acclaim of "respect, devotion, loyalty" by Iranians. Cabinet is "noticeably conservative" with royalists included. National Front and Mosaddeq's "main source of strength" is in "the streets" not in its parliamentary numbers.
1951 May 1 Shah signs law revoking Anglo-Iranian's concession and establishing the National Iranian Oil Company. Nationalization official.
1951 June Mosaddeq sends committee of five (including four National Front deputies) created by Majlis to Khuzestan to take over the oil installations" and implement the nationalization law. Nationalization takes shape.
1951 July Mosaddeq breaks off negotiations with AIOC when the latter threatens "to pull out its employees," and warns "tanker owners the receipts from the Iranian government would not be accepted on the world market." Confrontation escalates.
1951 July 15 US diplomat W. Averell Harriman arrives in Tehran to attempt to negotiate an end to the crisis; he is greeted by 10,000 protesters shouting "Death to Harriman". More than 20 people are killed and 2000 wounded in the protests. (p. 102) Further escalation.
1951 August 22 British cabinet imposes a series of economic sanctions on Iran: Prohibits the export of key British commodities, including sugar and steel; directs the withdrawal of all British personnel from Iranian oil fields and all but a hard core of about 300 administrators from Abadan; and blocks Iran's access to its hard currency accounts in British banks. Economic situation in Iran begins to deteriorate.
1951 September AIOC evacuates its technicians and closes down the oil installations, while the British government reinforces its naval force in the Persian Gulf and lodges complaints against Iran before the United Nations Security Council.
1951 October 19 Mosaddeq travels to the US to appear before the UN to present the Iranian case. After listening to both Mosaddeq and the British UN ambassador, the UN Security Council votes to `postpone discussion of the question to a certain day or indefinitely.` "Humiliating diplomatic defeat" for the British.
1951 October 23 Mosaddeq travels to Washington DC to negotiate with US government and seek financial assistance from the World Bank. Unsuccessful, no relief for Iran's economy.
1952 January? February? Elections held despite lack of reform to exclude illiterates. "Realizing that the opposition would take the vast majority of the provincial seats, Mosaddeq stopped the voting as soon as 79 deputies - just enough to form a parliamentary quorum - had been elected." Mosaddeq asserts that `foreign agents` have been exploiting the election campaign with bribes to destabilize Iran, and thus `the supreme national interests of the country necessitate the suspension of elections."

Halt of vote counting is seen as a defense against subversive British agents by some, and "as undemocratic and grasping for personal power" by others.

1952 February 17th Majlis convenes. National Front, or pro-National Front, deputies occupy 30 out of 79 seats. Opposition harasses Mosaddeq "with side skirmishes" refusing to vote for special powers to deal with the economic crisis caused by the rapidly dwindling oil revenues", voice regional grievances against the capital. National Front, in turn, wages "a propaganda war against the landed upper class.".
1952 With the departure of most foreign personnel, oil production falls from lack of maintenance and expertise. Oil boycott engineered by AIOC. Mosaddeq appeals to United States to mediate.
1952 July UK Royal Navy warships intercept Italian tanker Rose Mary after it leaves Iran and force it into the British protectorate of Aden on the grounds that the ship's oil was stolen property. News of this scares off other customers and tanker owners, staunching the small flow of Iranian oil exports.
1952 July Britain’s boycott becoming devastatingly effective. Iranians "becoming poorer and unhappier by the day". Mosaddeq's political coalition beginning to "fray", his enemies increasing in number.

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