Today Javad Zarif tweeted: “65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship & subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an “Action Group” dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation & demagoguery. Never again.”

This is simply bullshit, designed to obfuscate the role Iran’s theocratic mafia in undermining democracy in Iran. At the time of the coup, Ayatollah Kashani was a leading (political cleric, who had originally aligned himself with Mossadegh. Kashani served as speaker of the Majles (or lower house of Parliament), during the oil nationalization, but later turned against Mosaddeq during the 1953 Iranian coup d’état. Kashani protected the violent Islamist group Fada’iyan-e Islam, led by Navvab Safavi, after their expulsion from the Qom seminary by Ayatollah Hosein Borujerdi in 1950.

Yes, Ayatollah Kashani split from Mossadegh after Mossadegh nationalized Iranian oil. This is widely known. According to their ‘own’ narrative, Religious leaders in the country feared the growing power of the communist Tudeh Party, and believed that Mossadegh was too weak to save the country from the socialist threat.

Now we have newly released documents (declassified documents from the CIA), which clearly point to this narrative as total bullshit. Kashani wasn’t just opposed to Mossadegh — he was also in close communication with the Americans throughout the period leading up to the coup, and he actually appears to have requested financial assistance from the United States. There is strong indication that he did in fact receive large sums of money from the CIA for an extended period of time. His organization was involved in public (political) assassinations in Tehran in the 1950s

In any event on this day in 1953, i.e. August 19th, “Kashani was critical,” to the coup says Abbas Milani. “On that day Kashani’s forces were out in full force to defeat Mossadegh.”

Let me provide one more data point, my Grandfather was Mossadegh chief of staff and had deep insight into the role of the religious establishment in Iran (Haj Sheikh Ahmad Bahar). No one, absolutely no one, knows more about what happened than my father and his brothers. And they, unequivocally point to the role of the religious establishment in toppling Mossadegh. A picture of my grandfather with Mossadegh is provided above. Apparently Kashani was ‘disrespected’ by Mossadegh at a critical time (before the coup) – when Mossadegh refused to allow Iranians to go on pilgrimage overseas because of lack of foreign exchange (from the Embargo [or Sanctions] imposed on Iran at the time), and Kashani decided that he could no longer support Mossadegh – and vowed to topple him.

Interestingly, we also have one distant relative who was Ayatollah Kashani’s right hand man, and he attests to visits by “Alam” in the middle of the night to coordinate demonstrations in favor of the Shah. There is ample evidence of Kashani’s collusion with the West.

So, as the Foreign Minister of Iran’s theocratic regime, Javad Zarif has NO leg to stand on. The Mullahs have been central to undermining democracy in Iran – then and NOW.