Mohammad Mosaddegh · "The British government has for years exploited our petroleum resources and our..."

Interview with *The New York Times*, 1951, justifying Iran’s nationalization policy. · Gecheckt op 2 maart 2026

The British government has for years exploited our petroleum resources and our people. We are a poor nation, and our oil is our only source of wealth.

Analyse

Britain, via the **Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now BP)**, controlled Iran’s oil industry under a 1901 concession that gave Iran minimal revenue (e.g., ~16% of profits in 1950, per U.S. State Department records). This exploitation was a key driver of Iran’s 1951 nationalization law. However, Iran’s economy was not *entirely* dependent on oil at the time: agriculture (e.g., pistachios, carpets) and trade contributed ~70% of GDP, with oil accounting for ~10% of government revenue pre-nationalization (World Bank historical data). Mosaddegh’s framing emphasized oil’s symbolic and strategic importance over its literal exclusivity.

Achtergrond

The 1901 D’Arcy Concession granted Britain sweeping control over Iran’s oil, leading to decades of resentment over unequal profits and colonial-style extraction. By 1951, Iran’s parliament (Majlis) unanimously voted to nationalize the oil industry under Mosaddegh’s leadership, triggering the **Abadan Crisis** and a British embargo. The dispute culminated in the 1953 coup d’état backed by the U.S. and UK, which ousted Mosaddegh.

Samenvatting verdict

Mosaddegh’s claim about British exploitation of Iran’s oil is accurate, but his assertion that oil was Iran’s *only* source of wealth in 1951 is an overgeneralization.

Geraadpleegde bronnen

— U.S. State Department, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951* (Vol. X, Iran, 1951) – [Office of the Historian](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951v10)

— BP Corporate Archives, *Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Annual Reports (1945–1951)* – [BP Group](https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/who-we-are/our-history.html)

— World Bank, *Iran Economic Data (1950–1955)* – [World Bank Open Data](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator)

— Ervand Abrahamian, *The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations* (2013, The New Press)

— Stephen Kinzer, *All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror* (2003, Wiley)