In 1953, the CIA walked the streets of Tehran; today, they walk with Mossad and MI6

by Jasim Al-Azzawi

The original sin boomerangs

In this photo illustration, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seen behind the Iranian flag, with all of them displayed on screens, in Ankara, Turkiye on June 24, 2025. [Dilara İrem Sancar – Anadolu Agency]

The humidity of an Iranian summer is heavy stuff indeed, but in August 1953, the air in Tehran seemed to vibrate with something far more explosive than heat and moisture. It was the scent of a manufactured revolution. Kermit Roosevelt, a man whose bloodline carried a president of the United States and whose hand carried a briefcase full of roughly $1 million in cash, was the funding of what can only be termed today as “The Original Sin” of American Intervention in the Middle East. Kermit sat in the shadows of the American Embassy in Tehran.

History is no longer a footnote; it’s a blueprint. Today, as the 2026 geopolitical landscape shudders and convulses on the world stage, the Original Sin has come full circle. With allegations that the CIA, MI6, and Mossad agents are stirring the current unrest in Iran, and Mike Pompeo wishing every Mossad agent walking beside the protesters a “Happy New Year” on social media, the Original Sin has indeed come full circle. This time, the Original Sin isn’t about an oil contract in the colonial era; it’s about the global energy balance.

The architect and the nationalist

In 1953, the target was Mohammad Mossadegh, who was a secular nationalist who had the temerity to propose the view that the oil of Iran belonged to the Iranians. To the British, who had developed the wells from as far back as 1908 but were only paying the Iranians a “pittance” as royalties, this was sacrilege. Winston Churchill, the self-appointed champion of the Empire, breathed down the neck of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The irony is one of the most glaring contradictions in the course of history. It was the same Eisenhower, the individual who was to develop the Eisenhower Doctrine to dismantle colonial empires, who was also the one to give Roosevelt the green light to overthrow a democratically elected Prime Minister. The CIA did not have to resort to the use of missiles at the time; instead, they chose to use Iranian newspapers to their advantage. They hired writers to spout vitriolic prose concerning Mossadegh and hired mobs to agitate for $10 to $15 per day.

Mossadegh was ultimately removed, tried, and spent the rest of his days in house arrest. General Zahedi was installed, and the Shah, who had temporarily fled to Italy, was recalled to his Peacock Throne. A tactical victory that sowed the seeds of a strategic catastrophe.

2026: The new decapitation strategy

Fast forward to the present. The rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration has shifted from a maximum pressure campaign to a decapitation strategy. Donald Trump has come out publicly, warning the Supreme Leader he is not untouchable, similar to the capture of Maduro, where his inner circle was breached by foreign intelligence.

Of course, Tehran is not Caracas. The Iranian leadership has spent the past seven decades studying that 1950s playbook. They know that their monarch was “expelled,” rather than “decapitated”. They have constructed a security apparatus that is designed to prevent Roosevelt’s brand of briefcase diplomacy.

And then there was the chilling dress rehearsal of the “Twelve Day War,” as June 2025 has come to be known. In that exchange of threats and counter-threats, the US-Israeli combo attack on nuclear installations was not met with a whimper, but with a roar of 899 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones. Trump may claim that the US has “obliterated” the nuclear project of Iran, but the sheer scale of the counter-attack shows that the deterrence of Iran may be wounded, but is undoubtedly alive.

The golden bridge and the looming burn

At present, we are in a precarious calm. The Supreme Leader of Iran recently allowed Donald Trump to withdraw with dignity, an approach called the “golden bridge to retreat” by the military strategist Sun Tzu. Iran’s apparent decision to call off the scheduled hangings of more than 800 prisoners may have come as a tactical move to reduce tension after the US made a direct threat of military intervention. Trump responded to the apparent gesture of peace by tweeting, “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled.”

The bridge is being pulled in. Netanyahu continues to brief Washington on the “Round Two” attack plan for 2026 and insists that Israel cannot coexist with the resurgent Iranian missile industry. Trump, the consummate deal-maker, continues “itching” to complete the task started in June. The message to both men is clear: unlike in 1953, Iran today can “burn the area.”

If this attack is considered an imminent threat, Tehran has made it clear that it will not wait for the first bomb to drop. It will launch a preemptive attack on every American base in the region and Israel itself, while simultaneously moving to close the Strait of Hormuz for months to come. The closure of the strait will trigger an astronomical increase in oil prices, sending the global economy and the “Trumpian” prosperity story into a tailspin.

The Boomerang Returns

The tragedy of “Original Sin” was that it convinced Washington that the “street” could be “bought” and the “leadership decapitated,” with no long-term consequences. The boomerang, however, is beginning to come back with a jagged edge.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes,” Mark Twain supposedly said. In the corridors of the CIA and the Knesset, the history of 1953 is again being recited with new vigor. But they are forgetting the most crucial lesson: the Iranians in 1953 were taken by surprise. In 2026, the Iranians are holding the matches near the gas tank.

If Trump and Netanyahu continue to walk the streets of Tehran with the ghost of Kermit Roosevelt, they may find that the fire they ignite this time is one they cannot extinguish. The Original Sin of 1953 started with a million dollars. The Boomerang of 2026 could cost the world its whole economic future.