A Tehran University professor and political analyst has said that Iran’s new United Nations envoy nominee Hamid Aboutalebi stirs painful memories for Americans. In his op-ed for Reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, Sadegh Zibakalam also urged both the United States and Iran to quietly step back from this crisis so that critics of the nuclear deal on both sides do not use it as an excuse to destroy the deal.

“Regardless of what role Hamid Aboutalebi had or did not have in occupation of the embassy and in the taking of the hostages, the whole situation … is as painful for the Americans as the tragedy of the 1953 coup is for the Iranians,” wrote Zibakalam.

The United State’s role overthrowing then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 has united in anger Iranians of various political persuasions for over half a century. Mossadegh had angered the British by nationalizing Iran’s oil, an industry they had an overwhelming controlling stake in. The United States, at the urging of the British and with the cooperation of various Iranian political figures, fearing that Mossadegh was either too lenient or not strong enough to oppose pro-Soviet leftists in Iran, helped organize a coup against him. Mossadegh was placed under house arrest until his death. The Shah was restored to power and the Iranian-American military, political and security (especially the creation of the feared SAVAK intelligence unit) relationship flourished until the 1979 revolution.

One of the main reasons that the Muslim Student Followers of Imam’s Line give for storming the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 was that they wanted an apology for the coup. They also wanted the Shah returned from the United States, where he was receiving medical attention, in order to prevent plans for another coup.