For most of the next 20 years, the Parachute Regiment was involved in numerous peacekeeping and small scale operations associated with the withdrawal from empire. In 1951, the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, seized the oilfields in Abadan. The 16th Parachute Brigade was sent out to Cyprus in June to be ready to intervene should it be required. They were soon sent to reinforce the British troops in the Suez Canal Zone in response to Egyptian nationalists threatening the bases there. The brigade returned to Cyprus between January and July 1956 because of attacks on British forces by EOKA insurgents.