VKP(b) CC Decree, 'Concerning a Note of the Soviet Government to the Government of Iran in Connection with the Exchange of Letters between Mossadegh and the US Ambassador about the US Giving Aid to Iran

Draft

Top Secret

VKP(b) CC DECREE

concerning a note of the Soviet Government to the government of Iran in connection with the exchange of letters between Mossadegh and the US Ambassador about the US giving aid to Iran

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Approve the draft note of the Soviet Government to the government of Iran in connection with the exchange of letters between Prime Minister of Iran Mossadegh and the US Ambassador Henderson about the US giving so-called aid to Iran which occurred on 24 April of this year (attached).

The text of the note is to be published after it is handed to the Iranian Ambassador.

Draft note of the Soviet Government

to the Government of Iran

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In connection with the exchange of letters which took place at the end of April 1952 between Prime Minister of Iran, Mr. Mossadegh, and United States Ambassador to Iran, Mr. Henderson, on the question of the United States of America rendering so-called aid to Iran, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the honor to inform the Government of Iran of the following.

From the above-mentioned exchange of letters it is seen that an agreement has been reached between the Governments of Iran and the United States on the rendering of military and financial aid to Iran by the United States of America and that the Government of Iran, for its part, undertook definite commitments of a military and political nature.

As follows from reports in the Iranian press as well as from statements of representatives of the Iranian Government and the Government of the United States, the Iranian Government committed itself under this agreement to renew the contracts with the American military advisers in Iran. This was confirmed in the official statements by Busheri, Iranian Minister of Railways, on 27 April of this year, on the one hand, and Mr. McDermott, United States Assistant Secretary of State, on 25 April, on the other. It is also known that the American military mission, which ended its work in January of this year, as a result of the exchange of letters between Mr. Mossadegh and Mr. Henderson, has resumed it work, and that at the same time the Agreement between the United States and Iran of 23 May 1950 has again gone into force.

Thus, as a result of the above-mentioned exchange of letters and the re-entry into force of the Iranian-American military agreement, the Iranian Government places the Iranian army under the control of the United States Government. Thereby the Iranian Army loses its character as the national army of an independent, sovereign State.

The Soviet Government deems it necessary to call the attention of the Iranian Government to the fact that, in agreeing to accept American so-called aid and, in this connection, assuming definite commitments of a military nature towards the United States of America, the Iranian Government is in fact setting out on the path of helping the United States Government to carry out its aggressive plans directed against the Soviet Union.

Such actions of the Iranian Government cannot be regarded otherwise than as actions incompatible with the principles of good neighborly relations, the maintenance and consolidation of which is the duty of the parties who signed the Soviet-Persian Treaty of 26 February 1921.

[Translator's note: the above is a slightly-edited quotation from Yaacov Ro'i's book, "From Encroachment to Involvement; A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1945-1973".