Iran Charges Russian Plot

November 4, 1951 — The Associated Press


Arash Norouzi

The Mossadegh Project | February 19, 2014                    


Red Plot Uncovered — Tehran Newspaper Says Plan Visioned Russian Invasion Every once in a while you’ll come across an unheard of detail like this one. This AP wire report alleges that Iranian newspapers, notably Bakhtar Emrooz, had uncovered a Tudeh plot to instigate a Soviet invasion of Iran by causing havoc at the Abadan refinery.

There may be no way for historians to substantiate this (it’s the first such report we have come across), but it’s worth noting that this and numerous other U.S. news items showed Mossadegh’s government cracking down on Communist agitators. Nonetheless, the media portrayed them as in cahoots, and Foreign Minister Hossein Fatemi, whose newspaper uncovered the ‘Red plot’, was later labeled a Communist by none other than the Shah. No, it doesn’t add up at all....




DOCUMENTS REVEAL REDS IRANIAN PLAN

Paper Says Russians Hoped To Bait U.K. Into Landing Troops


AP (The Associated Press) TEHRAN Iran, Nov. 4 – (AP)—Bakhtar Emrooz, the newspaper of Deputy Premier Hossein Fatemi, said today captured Communist documents showed the Reds had plotted to bait Britain into landing troops at Abadan so as to furnish an excuse for a Russian invasion.

The newspaper reported that Communist leaders at the refinery center had been ordered to stir up rioting and bloodshed force Britain to land troops to protect her oil technicians. It added that the local leaders failed and contended that their Communist bosses in Tehran were infuriated and were threatening a purge.

Bakhtar Emrooz said Iranian security officers had now confirmed a report of last Wednesday which quoted a high authority as saying documents seized in a police raid on a Communist hideout showed plans for a coup and a lightning Russian invasion.

These plans were said to have gone as far south as Isfahan in Central Iran where it would appear, any appearance of Russian troops would have risked a clash with the British. Letters were even said to have been written to Northwestern Kurdish tribes inviting them to participate in the uprising.

The spreading of detailed military plans so widely appeared to observers to be unusual because of the danger of leaks. Iranian police previously had announced, however, the seizure of important Communist documents in a raid a week ago near Tehran University.

Elaborate instructions to Communist cells had been issued for sabotage and uprisings to coincide with the Russian invasion in event of a British landing, the high authority had reported.

Independent newspaper Farman, which printed a similar report of the plot today, said it showed how careful and judicious the government had been in handling the explosive oil crisis.

It lauded the government for promptly declaring martial law in the Abadan area last April when Communist-led rioting broke out and three Britons and six Iranians were killed.

Under a 30-year-old Russian-Iranian friendship treaty Russia might intervene in Iran if she considered herself menaced by a foreign power.



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Related links:

AUDIO: U.S. Army Radio Drama Portrays Mossadegh As Chief Enemy of Communists

Mossadegh Backers Bar Iranian Reds | June 19, 1953 (AP)

Intent On Evicting West, Iran Virtually Asks Russia In | Buffalo Courier Express, 6/31/52



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