Opposition Grows
| Year | Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | mid-February | Mosaddeq works to limit Shah's power, demands "that the Shah confine himself to a government-designated budget", and give Crown properties to the state, or use them "for the public welfare, ... refrain from receiving government opponents ..." | Pre-emptive move against budding center of government opposition, arouses opponents such as Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani. |
| 1953 | February 28 | Kashani mobilizes a clamorous pro-Shah crowd. A jeep carrying an army colonel and gang leader Shaban "the Brainless" Jafari smashes through the front gate of Mosaddeq's house. Mosaddeq is forced to flee in his pajamas over the back garden wall. | British diplomat reports that the mob`was certainly organized by former Mosaddegh supporter ... Kashani.` |
| 1953 | March 4–18 | In the U.S., President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who has resisted the idea of a US instigated coup, comes "to the conclusion" that Iran is collapsing and that the "collapse could not be prevented as long as Mosaddeq" is in power. Others in his administration take "his change in tone as a sign that he would not resist the idea of a coup." | US planning for coup to remove Mosaddeq from office begins. |
| 1953 | March | Several former members of Mosaddeq's coalition began to turn against him. They include Muzzaffar Bazaui, head of the worker-based Toilers party; Hussein Makki, who had helped lead the takeover of the Abadan refinery and was at one point considered Mosaddeq's heir apparent; and most outspokenly Ayatollah Kashani, who damns "Mosaddeq with the vitriol he had once reserved for the British." | Defections reduce Mosaddeq's ability "to organize crowds in the streets." Result is "partly through the efforts" of Iranians working as British agents. |
| 1953 | April 4 | $1 million given to the Tehran CIA station for use to `bring about the fall of Mosaddeq.` | |
| 1953 | April 19 | Anti-Mosaddeq plotters kidnap Tehran police chief General Mahmoud Afshartus. He is killed by his captors as police close in. Zahedi, who will appoint himself the next prime minister, is implicated and takes refuge in the Majlis under Kashani's protection. | Iran shocked. Foe of coup eliminated. Plotters succeed in pushing Iran toward greater chaos. |
| 1952 | May | The Shah "is stripped of all powers he had recovered since August 1941." His budget is cut, he is forbidden to communicate directly with foreign diplomats, royal lands are transferred back to the state, his sister is expelled from Iran, etc. | Competitor is weakened. |
| 1953 | May | Mosaddeq under siege, is losing support from erstwhile supporters in the bazaar and the army. The communist Tudeh party supports the government with "hard-knuckle tactics that employ thugs ... lawlessness." | As the National Front becomes weaker, the Tudeh party's support becomes more important to the government. |
| 1953 | June 14 | In America, president Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the coup plot presented to him in `broad brush` outline by Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles. | |
| 1953 | June 25 | Plans for the coup are laid out in detail at the U.S. State Department. Operation Ajax is given its final go ahead with unanimous vote. | Gray and black propaganda campaign begins attacking Mosaddeq as pro-Tudeh and anti-Islamic; working to destroying army morale and promoting economic collapse. |
| 1953 | July 1 | Pro-Mosaddeq members managed to oust Kashani as Speaker by a 41-31 vote, but are not able to prevent a successful vote approving Hossein Makki as supervisor of the government's monetary policy. | Parliament effectively paralyzed. |
| 1953 | July 14 | "National Front deputies resigned en masse, reducing the Majles below its quorum." | Effectively dissolves the 17th Majles, which had resisted Mosaddeq's bypassing of it with emergency powers to decree law. |
| 1953 | July 14–19 | "Mosaddeq - supported by the Tudeh - calls for a national referendum" to dissolve parliamant. | |
| 1953 | July 19 | American coup organizer Kermit Roosevelt enters Iran, which is "aflame" with antagonism between pro and anti-Mosaddeq forces. | |
| 1953 | July 21 | The communist Tudeh Party rallies against the Shah, against American imperialism and in favor of the Soviet Union. Rally draws a reported 100,000 demonstrators in Tehran. This far exceeds the 5000 supporters at an earlier National Front rally, which surprises and frightens non-communists. | One of the largest political demonstrations in Iran's history, suggests a shift in popular support to Communists. |
Read more about this topic: Abadan Crisis Timeline
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