Britain took a firm position in the face of the challenge from Mosaddeq, since it feared that there would be similar demands to nationalize British assets in other countries in the region, including the Suez Canal. An effective approach the British adopted was to win over US support by playing on the latter’s anti-communist paranoia. The well-known authority on Iranian history and politics Ali Ansari has pointed out that this outreach to the US and shaping a Western Alliance against Mosaddeq encouraged a ‘certain circularity’ in positions, in that Western concerns relating to communist
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