Despite his foregoing bitter attack on a group of fifteen deputies who had opposed his decision to suspend the Majlis (lower house) and decree an election law which, it is to be assumed, will be drafted to strengthen his standing, the Majlis gave a vote of confidence to the lachrymose Premier Mossadegh of Iran by 64 to 0, with one abstention. The Sultan seems to have withdrawn from the picture although earlier reports indicated that he was worried over the impending Communist threat. [They must be referring to the Shah!]

But even if the dispute between Britain and Iran should be settled soon, Iran will find a greatly reduced market for her oil. Nationalization of the British oil fields, including the refinery at Abadan, largest in the world, has stirred the British to make their loss good by expanding production elsewhere. Even the loss of refining capacity is to be made good by the building by Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company of a huge refinery at Aden, on the Red Sea, contracts for which were signed a week ago.

The AIOC has offered to buy 10,000,000 tons of oil from Iran yearly if the dispute be settled, but that is less than one third of the oil which Britain secured before the nationalization. Even if Iran finally sees the light and makes a fair agreement with Britain, she will be worse off than when the former high royalties came in without any expense to Mossadegh’s government for producing and refining. And a new market will have to be found to compensate for the increased production which Britain is getting from expanded and newly developed territory, with the new Aden refinery to improve Britain’s position still more.