711.91/8–1244: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Iran (Ford)
526. As regards the Shah’s reference to the “refusal” of the United States to sign a treaty regularizing presence of American troops in Iran, you are requested to remind him, whenever an occasion arises, that the American Government has been ready to sign such an agreement for many months and that the agreement was in fact on the point of signature last December28 when the Iranian Government suddenly declined to sign.
The grounds for this action by Iran have never been adequately explained. The Iranian Minister in Washington informed Dept several months ago that his Government was preparing a counterproposal. He now states that although he has subsequently telegraphed his Government on the subject, he has had no reply.
[Page 361]The American Government is not pressing for the agreement, but the Shah’s description of the situation, if correctly reported, is entirely unwarranted.
- See memorandum of December 8, 1943, by the Minister in Iran, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iv, p. 484.↩