Video: CIA admits role in Iran’s 1953 coup

The CIA has acknowledged its role, along with the British intelligence, in the 1953 coup that overthrew Iranian Iran's left-leaning Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The acknowledgement was made in declassified documents conforming operation AJAEX—meant to curtail soviet influence in Iran at the time.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive published the declassified information on its website.

The documents revealed that the CIA resorted to all kind of methods to stage the coup, enlisting security forces, bribing members of Parliament, securing the cooperation of the Shah, and using propaganda to politically undermine the Mossadegh government.

The documents were first released in 1981 but the part under Section III, which details the involvement of the coup and characterized as covert action, was blacked out.

Analysts says that the overthrow of an elected government and the consequences that followed led ultimately to the rise of the Islamic revolution and the Iranian hostage crisis—all repercussions that ultimately affected the entire region.

Why the CIA decided now to release the information is anyone’s guess, but it put to rest a long-held suspicion that the United Sates was behind the coup.