Which Iranian Prime Minister was in office from 1951 to 1953 and was overthrown in a US/UK-backed coup after nationalizing oil resources?

• A. Reza Shah Pahlavi
• B. Mohammad Mosaddegh
• C. Ali Khamenei
• D. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Answer: (B)

This question centers on Iran’s early 1950s crisis over oil control and a Western-backed overthrow. The prime minister in that period, from 1951 to 1953, was Mohammad Mossadegh. He pushed to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, ending the longtime British monopoly held by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Britain and the United States opposed this move, seeing it as a threat to their access to oil and influence in the region, and they helped orchestrate a coup in 1953 to remove Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the Shah. That sequence—nationalization, Western pushback, and a coup—defines the event. The other figures listed did not fit the timeframe or role: Reza Shah ruled earlier, while Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held different positions in later years.