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A declassified CIA document acknowledges that the agency was involved in the 1953 coup that overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.

The independent National Security Archive research institute, which published the document Monday, says the declassification is believed to mark the CIA's first formal acknowledgment of its involvement.

According to Foreign Policy, which reviewed the document, this is the key passage:

"The military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government."

The document was declassified in 2011. The institute published it Monday after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

While this might be the CIA's first formal nod, the U.S. role has long been known. In 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke of the intervention.

"The coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development, and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs," she said.

Also in 2000, the New York Times published what it said was a leaked 1954 CIA-written account of the overthrow.

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