major oil companies, such as Socony-Vacuum and Shell, assured the Ministry of Fuel and Power that they were also opposed to the agreement. Britain attempted to settle the dispute through the International Court of Justice(ICJ), but Iran contended that the issue lay outside the court's jurisdiction. On 22 July 1952, "the court accepted the Iranian argument that the dispute was between the Iranian government and a foreign corporation, not the British government; since the dispute was not about a treaty or convention with a foreign government, it was subject to Iranian domestic law". As the months went on, the crisis became acute. By mid-1952, an attempt by the Shah to replace Mossadegh backfired, and led to riots against the Shah and perceived foreign intervention. After that, Mossadegh returned with even greater prestige. At the same time however, his coalition was weakening, because Britain’s boycott/blockade of Iranian oil exports eliminated a major source of state revenue; many Iranians grew poorer and thus unhappier by the day. Coup Mossadegh expelled the British embassy in October 1952, checking further efforts by the UK government to internally undermine his regime. Britain appealed to US anti-communist sentiment, depicting both Mossadegh and Iran as unstable and likely to fall under communist influence as they continued to weaken. It was alleged that if Iran fell, the "enormous assets" of "Iranian oil production and reserves" would come under communist control, as would "in short order the other areas of the Middle East". The anti-Mossadegh plan was orchestrated by CIA under the code-name 'Operation Ajax', and by SIS (MI6) as 'Operation Boot'. The CIA utilized information obtain from British intelligence and bribed politicians, soldiers, mobsters, and journalists to destabilize the country and consolidate opposition to Mosaddegh. The Shah re-asserted his position and forcefully removed Mosaddegh from office. General Fazlollah Zahedi led tanks to Mosaddegh's residence and arrested him for treason. On 21 December 1953, Mosaddegh was sentenced three years' solitary confinement in a military prison, well short of the death sentence requested by prosecutors. He was then kept under house arrest at his Ahmadabad residence, until his death on 5 March 1967. Consortium With a pro-Western Shah and the new pro-Western Prime Minister, Fazlollah Zahedi, Iranian oil began flowing again and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which changed its name to British Petroleum (BP) in 1954, tried to return to its old position. However, Iranian public opinion was so opposed