August 30, 1956 — Port Huron Times Herald
| The Mossadegh Project | March 4, 2026 |
Lead editorial in The Port Huron Times Herald newspaper (Port Huron, Michigan).
Following Mossadegh
Lebanon—the Lebanese Republic—at the east end of the Mediterranean, threatens to nationalize the pipeline which carries oil from Saudi Arabia to the port of Sidon.
Only 25 miles of the 1,068-mile pipeline—of which 865 miles are in Saudi Arabia—100 miles in Jordan, and 80 miles in Syria—runs through Lebanon.
This pipeline—American owned—has been operated under a concession which the owners pay Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria part of the savings which accrue to the company through using the pipeline instead of tankers.
In June, the Lebanese Parliament enacted a law which cancels the concession and imposes income taxes on the American company—and on a British-American-owned pipeline which carries oil from Iraq.
Oil men say that the Lebanese demands are such that the income tax approaches a point beyond which shipping by oil by tankers would be no more expensive.
Lebanon is following in the footsteps of Mohammed Mossadegh, who
nationalized the oil industry of Iran and
found—after bankrupting his country—that he could not operate the industry. [The British blockade didn’t help.]
The Lebanese—as Mossadegh did—in their greediness may
be killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Related links:
Nasser And Mossadegh | Port Huron Times Herald, Aug. 15, 1956
Afghanistan and U.S. History of Foreign Interference (1980 Letter)
Turkey Gloomy Over Outlook In Iran | Montreal Gazette, May 21, 1951
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
