"Saving Iran's Great Uprising" | |||||||
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Part of Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution | |||||||
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Government-Insurgents | |||||||
Government of Islamic Republic of Iran Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization Intelligence aid:
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Neqab Organization
Supported by:
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
Second Bureau of Army Prime Ministry Intelligence Office |
Retired and active-duty personnel from: | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown |
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Coup d'état failed
Government of Islamic Republic of Iran
Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization
Neqab Organization
Second Bureau of Army
Revolutionary Guards
The "Saving Iran's Great Uprising" (Persian: نجات قیام ایران بزرگ, acronymed Neqab Persian: نقاب, meaning mask) more commonly known as the Nojeh coup plot (Persian: کودتای نوژه Kūdetā-ye Nōžeh) was a plan to overthrow the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran and its government of Abolhassan Banisadr and Ayatollah Khomeini. The plan involved officers and servicemen from the infantry, air force, army and secret service, and was largely halted by the arrest of hundreds of officers on 9–10 July 1980 at Nojeh Air Base, near Hamedan, although substantial sabotage damage had already been carried out, with only 28 tanks (of 159) operational in the frontline Khuzestan Province. The plan was organised by Colonel Muhammad Baqir Bani-Amiri, a retired Gendermerie officer, with the Shah's last Prime Minister, Shahpour Bakhtiar, contributing financial support and providing his contacts and authority. Bakhtiar's liaison with the conspirators in Iran was the businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar, who headed the logistics branch of the Niqab network which organised the civilian part of the plot. Bakhtiar told the plotters the United States "had given [the coup] its blessing," but "he was lying" as the U.S. "knew nothing about the Nojeh operation and would likely have opposed it on the grounds that it would endanger the lives of the [American] hostages" still held in Iran.