[5][6][7] He was arrested in his own office by Fitzroy Maclean, who details the operation, codenamed PONGO, in his 1949 memoir Eastern Approaches.

[4] However, he was at odds with Mosaddegh over his increasing tolerance for the outlawed communist party Tudeh, which had boldly demonstrated in favor of nationalisation.

Zahedi was dismissed by Prime Minister Mosaddegh after a bloody crackdown on pro-nationalization protesters in mid-1951 in which 20 people were killed and 2000 wounded.

Disorder among several ethnic groups in southern Iran and labor unrest among oil-field workers put further pressures on the government.

The newly formed CIA, along with the British intelligence agency MI6, took an active role in the developments, terming their involvement Operation Ajax.

Zahedi and his followers, financed by the foreign intelligence services, planted newspaper articles in Iranian publications and paid agent provocateurs to start riots.

On 15 August, after the first attempted coup d'état failed, the Shah fled first to Baghdad, Iraq, and then to Rome, Italy, after signing two decrees, one dismissing Mosaddegh and the other naming Zahedi to replace him as Prime Minister.

[4] According to the CIA, Zahedi was chosen because he was acceptable to the United States and Britain, had a long record of opposing Mosaddegh, had a significant following, and was willing to take the job.

[9] His tenure as prime minister ended in April 1955, and he was replaced by Hussein Ala.[9] His final post was Ambassador to the United Nations, in Geneva,[citation needed] where he died in 1963.