The hysterical Premier of Iran, Mossadegh, has now succeeded in maneuvering himself into the position best described by the phrase “going out on a limb”. He has encouraged the terrorists in Iran to such an extent and fanned the flames of nationalism with so much wind, that those irrational forces threaten to drive the country into total anarchy.

Latest example of this trend of events is the attempted assassination of Mossadegh’s own right hand man and leader in the National Front [Hossein Fatemi] that is clinging to power by exploiting religious and nationalistic fanaticism. The terrorists had openly boasted that they would threaten the life of any politician who showed signs of compromise with the West, and they have fulfilled this threat in the latest attempt assassination.

What puts Mossadegh really “out on a limb” is the fact that a compromise favorable to Iran had just been proposed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. [How was the World Bank offer reasonable?] By his incitements to violence against the “foreigner”, the Premier has sown the wind and is now left to reap the whirlwinds of extremism and violence.

Now, to put him in an even worse position for international backmail [sic—blackmail], comes the welcome news that oil production is up in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and particularly in Kuwait. The last named, a desert sheikdom on the Persian Gulf, is turning out 640,000 barrels of oil a day, replacing nearly half of Iran’s output. This means that the West, with stepped up oil production, may be able to get along without the nationalized oil of Iran. Thus Iran, already bereft of British oil royalties, may be headed straight into bankruptcy within the next few months.

It is more than possible that Mossadegh already has killed the goose that was laying Iran’s golden egg. [A similar line was used by Gladwyn Jebb at the UN in Oct. 1951]