September 29, 1951 — The Rocky Mountain News
| The Mossadegh Project | November 22, 2024 |
An editorial on oil, Iran, and Britain in The Rocky Mountain News newspaper (Denver, Colorado).
It Looks Hopeless in Iran
THE SENSIBLE THING would be for Britain to order her technicians out of the
Abadan Oil Refinery area before the explosion.
There is only a corporal’s guard of them left—330, as compared with 3000 running the industry before Iran
nationalized her oil and ousted the British
company. They are not producing oil, and Britain’s chances of regaining her position are at the vanishing point.
The technicians are there on thin legalistic grounds—at least from the Iranians’ point of view. They are staying on only because the
World Court at the Hague ordered both the Iranian and British governments to maintain the status quo in the oil fields until the dispute was settled.
It was useless to expect the Teheran government, under the hysterical
Premier Mossadegh, to abide by any such lofty
injunction. And it is equally useless for the British to appeal to the United Nations Security Council against Iran’s order expelling the technicians. Russia’s veto could block any favorable action.
* * *
BUT THE IMMINENT British elections complicate—and appear to dominate—the issue.
The Attlee government could lose the elections by giving in to Iran now, after promising that Abadan would not be abandoned. [Clement Attlee]
There is little hope that the inflamed Iranians will heed
President Truman’s request that they
cancel the expulsion order. All our previous efforts to mediate have been fruitless.
In a showdown it looks hopeless for Britain — and world peace.
In the critical circumstances, the British would do well to forget about the elections and write off Iran.
Related links:
At the Crossroads | Rocky Mountain News (Denver), July 2, 1951
Reappraisal Due | Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), Sept. 5, 1952
A Visiting Premier | Johnson City Press-Chronicle, Oct. 10, 1951
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
