There seem to be some stirrings of parliamentary common sense in Iran against the head-in-the-sand policies of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, leader of a country which has vast natural resources but is in imminent danger of going flat broke because of the long-standing shutdown of oil production.

The shutdown is Premier Mossadegh’s baby. He provoked it when he nationalized Iran’s oil industry and ousted the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., which ran the world’s largest refinery at Abadan. Since then, Iran has been stuck with millions of barrels of oil it can’t get rid of, with the result that oil revenue is nil.

A delegation from the World Bank has been in Iran for some time trying to put over a face-saving plan whereby the bank would run the oil industry, paying Iran out of profits, while Iran and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. continue to try to settle their differences.

But even this reasonable plan failed to move Mossadegh from his stand that Iran should have full control of oil production, although under present conditions no adequate market is available.

The premier’s stubbornness has alarmed members of the Iranian Senate. They finally were able to persuade him to continue negotiations with the World Bank. They clearly see the need of restoring their country’s chief source of income.

At least there are some men of influence in Iran who are not blind to realities. In a situation where the free world needs Iran’s oil and Iran is in desperate need of oil revenue, it is difficult to understand why the obvious solution is so long in coming. The senators constitute a slim hope of speeding its arrival.