Premier Mossadegh is reportedly reluctant to accept further American military aid which would commit Iran to the west, according to dispatches from Teheran. In proof of this he has agreed to receive a Polish trade mission to discuss new ways of disposing of Persia’s nationalized oil.

The report adds that the new U.S. Ambassador, Loy Henderson, achieved “no concrete results” in his latest conference with the ailing Iranian leader. This is not surprising, but the intimation that Mossadegh has been warned to moderate his anti-western course by the Iranian general staff may have profound significance.

The Iranian army, though it could not offer much resistance to a Russian invasion, is a fairly well disciplined and equipped internal security force as Eastern armies go. It proved itself easily able to control the country during the tense period when the British were being inched out of Abadan and has maintained order in Teheran despite frequent mass demonstrations.

The Iranian officer corps is well aware that its present condition is largely due to American military aid funds, and, while simple gratitude is as rare in Iran as anywhere, practical self-interest is not lacking. The general staff, which has followed Mossadegh loyally in his campaign to expel the British, apparently is alarmed at his new tack of toying with the Soviet satellites, lest the U.S. military mission leave and take their checkbooks with them.

The army’s loyalty, according to all observers in Teheran, is primarily to the Shah, who has chosen the role of a constitutional monarch during the oil nationalization storm and has taken no active role in the controversy. But the army is the only organized force in the country other than the Tudeh (Communist) Party, and Mossadegh can scarcely ignore it.

Being, from all appearances, a man of more emotional courage than sagacity, he may do so, but he is caught between two fires. The religious fanatics and their Communist allies are waiting for him if he heeds the army’s warning against alienating the west. His country broke, instead of prospering as he promised, Mossadegh is the victim of circumstances which he alone created.

It seems only a matter of time before somebody pulls his prayer rug out from under him, yet Persian politicians have a way of landing on their feet like cats, and Mossadegh still has a faint or two up his sleeve.