891.00/12–2645
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Allen)
The Iranian Ambassador called to say that although he had been advising his Government for several weeks that Iran should present her case to the General Assembly Meeting of UNO in January, he had now received a telegram from Tehran stating that his Government was somewhat undecided whether to present its case in the absence of [Page 514] fairly definite assurance that Iran would be supported in the Assembly by some of the major Powers, notably the United States.
I said that while I could appreciate Iran’s desire to have such assurance in advance, I also thought the Ambassador would appreciate our inability to give him such assurance. I said that our attitude would naturally depend, in any case presented to the United Nations, upon the facts as presented or as determined.
The Ambassador then wanted to know whether there had been any change of American policy toward Iran as a result of Mr. Byrnes’ conversations in Moscow, or for any other reason. I recalled that American policy towards Iran, as stated in our note to the Soviet Government regarding events in Azerbaijan, was based primarily on the Declaration regarding Iran and the United Nations Charter. I had no reason to think that our policy had changed in any respect.
The Ambassador expressed confidence that our policy had not changed, but wanted to know whether we would declare our continued adherence to this policy openly and vigorously before the United Nations Assembly, if Iran presented its case there. In reply I reminded the Ambassador that the United States had not only followed a consistent policy in support of Iranian sovereignty on two conspicuous occasions during the past two years (the oil controversy of 1944 and the present Azerbaijan case), but that we had made known our support openly and publicly. I left it to the Ambassador to judge from these recent examples whether we would again speak out or remain silent if occasion should arise for the expression of our views.
The Ambassador said that in spite of his inability to obtain a firm commitment from us of support before UNO, he would strongly advise his Government to present its case at the London meeting next month for the judgment of world opinion. If Iran did not do so, he realized that Iran would weaken its claim for world support in a matter involving a violation of Iranian sovereignty.