Oil-rich Iran, long an object of covetous Soviet eyes, is moving valiantly to come back from the brink of ruin to which the nation was carried by the dictatorial ambitions of a greedy scoundrel, Mohammed Mossadegh. [He lived frugally, paid all his own expenses, and accepted no salary as Premier.]

Having already set in motion plans to resolve the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute which virtually wrecked the nation’s economy, the government of Premier Zahedi [Fazlollah Zahedi] now has moved to restore the Parliament which Mossadegh destroyed and bring back to Iran true constitutional government.

When Mossadegh was overthrown, there was virtually no Parliament left. Under his dictatorial and destroying rule, he had forced the Senate to agree to its own dissolution in 1952. He then reduced the membership of the Majlis (the lower house of Parliament) to twenty-three where a minimum of sixty-nine was necessary to conduct business. He thus destroyed the Parliament so he could rule by decree.

Now the Zahedi government has dissolved the remaining remnant of Parliament and has called for new elections to name 136 deputies to the Majlis and thirty, or one half, of the Senate membership. Under the Iranian constitution, the Shah appoints the other thirty members of the Senate.

It’s a tough road which the Iranian government is traveling and it will take time to undo the damage done by Mossadegh. But the way is being cleared and a conciliatory and sympathetic attitude by the West will aid materially. This is true particularly with respect to settlement of the oil controversy with Britain. It was seizure and nationalization by Iran of the British oil properties that took Iranian oil off the world market, ruined the nation’s economy, and eventually led to the downfall of Mossadegh.

The bitter hatreds toward the West which were fanned into flame by Mossadegh and other demagogues during the oil controversy are disappearing under the calm guidance of the new Iranian government. It is essential that Britain and the West avoid any action of the kind that helped to arouse these hatreds in the past. Fair settlement of the oil dispute, the key to Iran’s future, will help to assuage the bitterness of the past and cement solidly the ties of Iran to the bloc of free nations.