Iranians Can't Even Agree Among Themselves on Oil

Persian Squabbles
December 30, 1952 — The Buffalo Courier-Express

The Mossadegh Project | May 21, 2013

Editorial in The Buffalo Courier-Express (Buffalo, New York) newspaper — Tuesday, December 30, 1952.

Iranians Can’t Even Agree
Among Themselves on Oil

There’s nothing new about the fact that Iran has been having trouble over its oil. Premier Mohammed Mossadegh has had a chip on his shoulder against the British, the Americans and any other foreigners who might help Iran get the revenue it should from its vast oil resources.

But Iran’s oil troubles now are internal as well as external. The Iranians can’t get along among themselves on the oil question. All four legislative members of the supreme council of Iran’s nationalized oil company have resigned. One of them, Hussein Makki, [Hossein Makki] secretary-general of Premier Mossadegh’s Nationalist party, quit on the ground that Dr. Reza Falah, [British-trained oil expert Reza Fallah] appointed as director of the big Abadan refinery, is “a servant of the British.” Three others walked out on the reported contention that Mr. Makki had refused to recognize a majority vote of the council.

The ironic part of the thing is that impartial observers describe Dr. Falah as the only Iranian technician capable of handling the refinery job.

If the Iranians can’t handle their oil problems themselves and won’t let anybody else do it, they’re indeed in a bad way. It almost seems as if that’s the way they like it.

Related links:

Mossadegh Loses Friends — TIME, January 19, 1953

Government By Assassination — Signs of the Times, November 12, 1951

Mossadegh Pauses — THE WORLD This WEEK, November 19, 1951

MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”