811.24591/3: Telegram

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

145. Your 286, March 19 and Department’s 132, March 18. Draft agreement42 being sent you contains provision whereby United States undertakes to respect independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran. This is modeled on Article 1 of Anglo-Soviet-Iranian Treaty of Alliance. Department does not feel able to make stronger commitment and cannot agree that Iranian Government has a right to expect a guarantee merely because of the presence of American troops in Iran.

In your discretion, you may communicate the foregoing to Prime Minister, reminding him at the same time of the assurances contained in President’s message of September 2, 194143 to Reza Shah44 to the effect that this Government maintained its traditional attitude toward the independence of all nations and had taken note of British and Soviet statements that they had no designs on Iranian independence or territorial integrity. You may also remind him that the President has taken note of the Anglo-Soviet-Iranian Treaty, by which the Allies undertook to respect Iranian sovereignty and integrity.

Hull
  1. Ante, p. 459.
  2. Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. iii, p. 446.
  3. Reza Shah Pahlavi, at that time Shah of Iran.