Mohammad Mossadegh

Mohammad Mossadegh was Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953. He founded the National Front in 1949 and led the campaign to nationalize Iran's oil industry, previously controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. His democratically elected government was overthrown in the August 1953 coup d'état orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 (Operation Ajax/Boot). He was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to three years in prison, and then placed under house arrest in his estate in Ahmadabad, where he remained until his death on 5 March 1967. His legacy shaped the ideology of the Freedom Movement of Iran, whose members described themselves as 'Mossadeghists.'