761.91/11–2844: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 28—6:02 p.m.]
10498. In commenting to us on the Soviet-Iranian situation98 a Foreign Office official today said the following:
The new Iranian Prime Minister … is friendly to the Allies. The Cabinet is composed of men about whom little is known. The Foreign Office believes however that the new Cabinet is not likely to give in to the continued Russian pressure.
The Foreign Office feels real concern over the Soviet attitude towards Iran, and believes that this situation created by the Soviets is in fact a test case of future Soviet relations with Iran, and, indeed, with other countries adjacent to the Soviet Union. Kavtaradze99 and those Iranian newspapers controlled by the Soviets are keeping up their campaign about the oil concessions, which is worrying.
The British Embassy at Washington has been instructed to inform the Department about the new British note to the Soviets1 on this general subject, a note which is a reminder that the British expect an answer to their previous note to the Soviet Government2 on this matter.
- Mohammed Saed had resigned as Prime Minister on November 9, it was widely believed, under Russian pressure; a new government had been formed on November 26 by Morteza Qoli Bayat; for correspondence on the political crisis, see pp. 445 ff.↩
- Sergey Ivanovich Kavtaradze, Soviet Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs, who headed the Russian delegation which came to Iran in September seeking oil concessions for the Soviet Union.↩
- On November 20 the British Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Clark Kerr) had sent a letter to Molotov inviting a clarification of Russian intentions in Iran; see telegram 4459, November 22, 10 p.m., from Moscow, p. 475.↩
- November 2; see telegram 810, November 3, 2 p.m., from Tehran, and telegram 4438, November 20, 7 p.m., from Moscow, pp. 466 and 474, respectively.↩