Iran to US: We're Suing Over '53 Coup

Perhaps the CIA should have just kept its proverbial mouth shut. A week after the agency finally acknowledged it was behind the 1953 coup of democratically elected Iranian PM Mohammad Mossadeq, Iran's parliament has voted to sue the US for meddling in its domestic affairs, the LA Times reports. "America's oppressive behavior (in 1953) shows that the Iranian nation has to stand up and pursue its trampled rights," said one Iranian lawmaker, per the AP.

The parliament will now begin exploring just how it can take the US to international court. But the director of Iranian studies at Stanford doesn't think there's much substance to the plan. "Clearly this is more political theater than international jurisprudence, " he says, per the Times. "I don't think this lawsuit is going to go anywhere other than to end up as an empty gesture by frustrated members of the conservative camp that have lost an election badly and are reeling from the fact that people have said a resounding 'no' to their policies." (More Iran stories.)