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Reading Mossadegh in Cairo
Abstract
In 1951 Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, who was the prime minister of Iran, announced the complete nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Almost immediately following this announcement, he went on a journey to the United States to defend Iran's rights over its natural assets, following a British demand that the United Nations prevent Iran from doing so. On his way back to Iran, Mossadegh visited Egypt, a nation which had many similarities to Iran at that time; both were reigned by pro-western monarchies, each had a depressed nationalistic movement, and both had major national assets which were controlled by British interests. The Egyptians viewed the Iranian Prime Minister as a role model. British officials in Egypt and the Egyptian political elite did not share the same point of view, however. Mossadegh's visit to Cairo cemented his position as a regional leader, and at the same time provided Egyptian nationalists a paragon upon which to base their own national government. In July 1952, a few months after the visit, the Free Officers Revolution took place in Egypt, which engendered a new spirit and hope among the Egyptian people. In August 1953, Mossadegh was overthrown in a CIA sponsored coup d'etat, and the Iranian National Project came to a premature end. The new revolutionary regime in Egypt, however, used the Iranian coup to make a stand toward the new Third-World-Consciousness that was just about to embark. Egyptian officials used Mossadegh's tremendous popularity in Egypt to recruit the masses the long fight against British and western imperialism, which would eventually culminate with the nationalization of the Suez Canal. In the recent years Iranian influence on the Arab Middle East was viewed in a negative context. As this paper will show, in the earlier years the Iranian influence was not only taken as much more positive, but Iranian politics was also adopted as a model for the Arab fight against Western imperialism. This paper tries to answer the following questions: How did the Egyptian public react to Mossadegh's visit What were the approaches toward Iran in the Egyptian public sphere What did British decision-makers think about the implications of such a visit How was Mossadegh character was used in the rhetoric of the new Egyptian regime In the paper I analyze Egyptian newspapers coverage, British Foreign Office documents, and memoirs of leaders of the Free Officers regime.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Iranian Studies