A Welcome Development
August 6, 1954 — The Buffalo Courier-Express

The Mossadegh Project | November 28, 2018                               


An editorial in The Buffalo Courier-Express newspaper of Buffalo, New York.



Agreement on Iranian Oil
Is Welcome to U.S. Taxpayers

Settlement of the long Iranian oil nationalization dispute is a welcome development, although technical complications affect it to a certain degree.

Iran is paying 70,000,000 damages to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. [AIOC] for property seized three years ago when the then premier, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, put over his ill-fated nationalization program, a program which smothered Iran’s greatest national resource and drained the national treasury.

Iran also is turning over oil production to an international consortium including American, British, French and Dutch oil companies which will market the oil on a 50-50 basis with Iran.

One drawback is that the world oil supply now is plentiful, and finding markets for the Iranian oil presents something of a problem. One advantage is that the agreement keeps Iran’s oil out of the hands of Russia. Another is that it provides relief for the American taxpayer, who has been keeping Iran going while the dispute lasted. [A very misleading statement given Truman and Eisenhower’s refusal to grant a rather modest loan under Mossadegh. It also overlooks the substantial U.S aid forked over to the new regime.] A third is that it will put Iran back on its financial feet as an independent nation.

News of the settlement was greeted by Secretary of State Dulles [John Foster Dulles] with the statement that “every member of the community of free nations stands to gain” from it. It bears out his contention that “when good will exist and people strive earnestly and realistically, a way can always be found with honor and with fairness to overcome difficulties.”

Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954
Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 
1954

Search MohammadMossadegh.com



Related links:

Iran Faces the Future | The Times Record, August 6, 1954

Collapse Faces Oil-Rich Iran While Neighbors Coin Money | March 31, 1952

Sec. John Foster Dulles’ Message to Eisenhower Re: Iran Oil Deal (Aug. 3, 1954)



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

Facebook  Twitter  YouTube  Tumblr   Instagram