Iran marks oil nationalization anniv.

The event, held each year on March 20, is not only significant in the history of the Iranian nation’s anti-colonialist campaign, but is a defining moment in the history of the political developments of the Middle East.

This year though, the National Day of Oil is observed on March 19 as 2012 is a leap year consisting of 366 days.

On March 20, 1951, members of the Iranian parliament ratified a bill on Iran’s petroleum industry nationalization. The bill was introduced to the parliament by then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with the support of his nationalist party and religious groups led by prominent cleric Ayatollah Seyyed Abolqasem Mostafavi Kashani.

“In the name of the Iranian nation’s prosperity and in order to secure the world peace, Iran’s oil industry is nationalized in all regions of Iran without exemption; that means that the whole oil exploration, excavation and utilization operations are at the hand of the Iranian government,” the first article of the bill reads.

The legislation put an end to four decades of British control on Iran’s oil, which was conducted by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

“The nationalization of oil had a great impact on Iran’s independence, national sovereignty and foreign policy,” Maral Darbandi, a Tehran-based political analyst, told Press TV, adding that the move was strongly supported by the country’s businessmen, intellectuals and clerics.

Britain used to pay only a tiny share of the oil excavations and exports to the Iranian government prior to the nationalization of Iran’s oil.

Iran, a major crude exporter, is the second oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

MP/GHN/HJL

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