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March 18, 1952 — The Buffalo Courier-Express
March 18, 1952 — The Buffalo Courier-Express
| The Mossadegh Project | May 16, 2016 |
An editorial on cash-strapped Iran in The Buffalo Courier-Express newspaper in New York.
Iran Risks Economic Collapse
as Result of Oil Policy
The mission now has failed. It found no basis on which Premier Mohammed Mossadegh was willing to accept the World Bank’s offer to take over Iran’s oil production and guarantee Iran a sizable revenue from the sale of oil on the world market. An Iranian official [Ali Shayegan] put it this way: “Negotiations are now ended. It is the duty of the Iranian government to ignore the loss of oil income and set its present governmental finances in order.”
That’s very much more easily said than done. Iran is in a desperate financial fix, and the stubborn refusal of the Mossadegh government to make any concessions which would permit the restoration of oil production without loss of Iranian prestige seems especially unjustifiable, even from the point of view of extreme nationalism.
It may be uncharitable to suggest it, but perhaps only the pressure of complete economic collapse can do anything to produce a change in Iranian policy as it affects the oil situation.
Related links:
Collapse Faces Oil-Rich Iran While Neighbors Coin Money — Buffalo Courier-Express, 1952
Iran’s Problems — U.S. editorial, June 17, 1952
Iran Faces Financial Crisis As Oil Industry Shuts Down — AP, November 15, 1951
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
