Yazdi Hails Mosaddeq on CIA-Backed Coup Anniversary
August 19, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN The foreign minister of Iran's interim government in 1979 Ebrahim Yazdi on Thursday called Mordad 28, 1332 (August 17, 1953) the day on which the government of the then prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq was toppled by a CIA-backed coup a most sinister day in the history of Iran.
Yazdi who was addressing a group of students at Tehran's Teachers Training University in a ceremony to review the developments of the CIA-backed 1953 coup, said experiences from that incident had contributed much to the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He also underscored the role of Iran's National Movements in the victory of the revolution.
Yazdi who is also the secretary general of the banned but tolerated Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI), named these movements as the communists (Tudeh Party), the nationalists, and the religionists which he said had emerged one after the other.
"The religionists were made up of two groups: the traditionalists affiliated to the Fadaeian of Islam and the religious intellectuals affiliated to the Islamic Student Associations led by such personalities as the late Ayatollah (Mahmoud) Taleqani, (Mahdi) Bazargan and (Ali) Shariati".
The FMI leader deplored Iran's Nationalist Movement because he said they tried to overlook Iran's religious history to reach their national identity.
He went on to say that Islam and nationality form two inseparable parts of the identity of every Iranian, and added that anyone who had tried to take advantage of one of these two was doomed to failure.
He called Mosaddeq the symbol of the unity of Iranian political groups, and praised his economic policies which in his words, aimed to make Iran's economy independent from the oil industry.
Yazdi put the blame of the failure of Mosaddeq's government on Britain, saying that they mobilized several religious figures and intellectuals against Mosaddeq by propagating that Mosaddeq's policies would eventually end in communism.
He also said that the international circumstances of the time, and the differences inside Mosaddeq's government had contributed much to his failure.
During his term in office, Mosaddeq had won the nation several international privileges among them nationalization of Iran's oil industry.
(IRNA)
Yazdi who was addressing a group of students at Tehran's Teachers Training University in a ceremony to review the developments of the CIA-backed 1953 coup, said experiences from that incident had contributed much to the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He also underscored the role of Iran's National Movements in the victory of the revolution.
Yazdi who is also the secretary general of the banned but tolerated Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI), named these movements as the communists (Tudeh Party), the nationalists, and the religionists which he said had emerged one after the other.
"The religionists were made up of two groups: the traditionalists affiliated to the Fadaeian of Islam and the religious intellectuals affiliated to the Islamic Student Associations led by such personalities as the late Ayatollah (Mahmoud) Taleqani, (Mahdi) Bazargan and (Ali) Shariati".
The FMI leader deplored Iran's Nationalist Movement because he said they tried to overlook Iran's religious history to reach their national identity.
He went on to say that Islam and nationality form two inseparable parts of the identity of every Iranian, and added that anyone who had tried to take advantage of one of these two was doomed to failure.
He called Mosaddeq the symbol of the unity of Iranian political groups, and praised his economic policies which in his words, aimed to make Iran's economy independent from the oil industry.
Yazdi put the blame of the failure of Mosaddeq's government on Britain, saying that they mobilized several religious figures and intellectuals against Mosaddeq by propagating that Mosaddeq's policies would eventually end in communism.
He also said that the international circumstances of the time, and the differences inside Mosaddeq's government had contributed much to his failure.
During his term in office, Mosaddeq had won the nation several international privileges among them nationalization of Iran's oil industry.
(IRNA)