United Kingdom intelligence operations

On 19 August 1953, Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d'état that strengthened the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. In the months preceding the coup, Mosaddegh had consolidated power by orchestrating an unconstitutional referendum to dissolve parliament that was widely described as fraudulent, and he later refused to step down after the Shah exercised his constitutional authority to dismiss him as prime minister. It was instigated by the United Kingdom (MI6), under the name Operation Boot and the United States (CIA), under the name TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax. A key motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after Mosaddegh nationalized the country's oil industry.

1943 British deception operation

political forgery, falsely attributed to Grigory Zinoviev

joint US/UK intelligence-gathering operation in Berlin in the 1950s

military operation

Western covert paramilitary operation

1945–1955 British Secret Intelligence Service program to infiltrate its agents into Poland and Baltic states

1942 Second World War military deception operation

British intelligence agency unit

military deception operation

part of World War II in Greece

operation in Allied-occupied Austria which ran from 1949 to 1955 that covertly tapped into the landline communications of the Soviet Army headquarters in Vienna