Abadan Crisis

The Abadan Crisis occurred from 1951 to 1954, after Iran nationalised the Iranian assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and expelled Western companies from oil refineries in the city of Abadan (see Abadan Refinery).

Prelude

The AIOC was the United Kingdom's "single largest overseas asset" and a "source of national pride" in the British post-war era of Clement Attlee, and Ernest Bevin. Even as late as the "1940s and early 1950s some high British officials still believed that Persian petroleum was actually and rightly British petroleum because it had been discovered by the British, developed by British capital, and exploited through British skill and British ingenuity."

In stark contrast, Iranian Premier Mohammad Mosaddegh believed the 1933 concession granted to the AIOC by Iran was "immoral as well as illegal". Mosaddeq "challenged every aspect of the British commercial presence in Iran". The British feared that if Mosaddeq's policies prevailed, "nationalists throughout the world could abrogate British concessions with impunity."