TEHRAN -- Iranian officials on Wednesday marked the 73rd anniversary of the 1953 U.S.- and British-backed coup against Prime Minister Muhammad Mosaddegh, describing the overthrow of his government as a defining example of foreign intervention in Iran and a lasting warning about the consequences of surrendering national sovereignty to outside powers.
The August 19, 1953 coup, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup, overthrew Mosaddegh after his government nationalized Iran’s oil industry and challenged Britain’s control over the country’s petroleum resources. Declassified documents have since confirmed the role of the CIA and MI6 in the operation, while the CIA itself has acknowledged that its involvement was undemocratic.
Iranian officials used the anniversary to draw a direct connection between the 1953 intervention and the country’s continuing confrontation with Washington.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi described the coup as “direct intervention by the United States and Britain in the will of the Iranian people and their right to self-determination,” saying the episode could neither be whitewashed nor forgotten. 
Foreign interference in the destiny of a nation, he said, amounted to colonialism and an assault on popular sovereignty.
The anniversary has particular resonance in Tehran, where the 1953 coup is widely regarded as a turning point that consolidated Muhammad Reza Pahlavi’s rule and opened the way to decades of increasingly authoritarian monarchy before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The dispute that preceded the coup centered on Iran’s attempt to nationalize its oil industry. 
Britain, which had exercised extensive control over Iranian oil through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, opposed the nationalization drive and imposed economic pressure on Tehran. The United States and Britain subsequently moved toward covert action to remove Mosaddegh.
Iranian officials have repeatedly presented the episode as evidence that Western governments’ stated commitment to democracy gives way to strategic and economic interests when governments challenge foreign influence.
The anniversary also comes as Tehran continues to confront Washington and its allies after a period of intense military and political confrontation. Iranian officials have described the historical experience of 1953 as one reason Iran remains deeply wary of foreign intervention, regime-change efforts and external pressure.
Iranian officials have also pointed to the coup as a lesson in the importance of national unity. A senior cleric in Bushehr said the coup demonstrated that reliance on the United States could pave the way for foreign political, economic, military and cultural domination.
The historical dispute remains central to Iranian perceptions of the United States. Iranian leaders have frequently cited the coup as the starting point of the modern confrontation between Tehran and Washington, with a recent commemoration recalling that “the beginning of our dispute with America” dates to the 1953 intervention.
Seventy-three years on, the coup therefore remains in Iran not simply as a historical event, but as a reference point for the country’s modern foreign policy: resistance to external interference, protection of national sovereignty and skepticism toward Western promises of partnership when Iran’s independent political choices conflict with foreign interests.