Office of the Historian

741.9111/24: Telegram

The Minister in Iran (Dreyfus) to the Secretary of State

Tehran, January 12, 1942—4 p.m.
[Received January 12—5:36 a.m.]

7. I have advised the Iranian Government of the purport of Department’s 165, December 29.41 Both the Prime42 and Foreign Ministers43 seem deeply perturbed about the situation in Azerbaijan, alleging that Soviet interference and propaganda continue unabated. They express the belief that this condition might be alleviated and that the Russians might perhaps be deterred from pushing a Separatist movement were the United States to make a statement taking cognizance of the treaty44 and guaranteeing the independence and territorial integrity of Iran. The Foreign Minister states that the Shah intends when treaty is signed, which should be in a week or so, to communicate this fact to the President referring in his communication to the Atlantic Charter.45 The reply to this telegram might present a good opportunity for a statement along the lines suggested above, should the Department deem such a course to be advisable. If such a statement is made in reply to the Shah’s telegrams the Iranian Government would wish to have permission to publish it.

Dreyfus
  1. ibid., p. 477.↩
  2. Mohammed Ali Foroughi, Iranian Prime Minister, August 1941–March 1942.↩
  3. Ali Soheily.↩
  4. Proposed Anglo-Soviet-Iranian Treaty of Alliance.↩
  5. Joint statement by President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, August 14, 1941, Foreign Relations 1941, vol. i, p. 367.↩