337. Memorandum by the Chief of the Near East and Africa Division, Directorate of Plans, Central Intelligence Agency (Roosevelt)1

The following information from Tehran, Iran dated 16 October 1953, is evaluated at 2 (referring to reportorial accuracy). Source of this information is an Iranian with wide political contacts (C). Subject of the information is “Baghai’s Dissatisfaction with Zahedi Government”.

1. Dr. Mozaffar Baghai, head of the Toilers Party, stated on 16 October that he was very dissatisfied with the Zahedi government because of:

A. Razmara Cabinet hangovers—Dr. Jehanshah Salah, Ali Asghar Hekmat, Abdollah Hedayat, Sharif Emami (now out).

B. Release by government of high Tudeh leaders like Ahmad Lankarani, Daud Noruzi, and Mahmud Hormuz, and arrest of many innocent “little people”.

C. Opening of the Senate.

2. Baghai charged that Military Government officers were accepting bribes for the release of Tudeh leaders. “If this continues”, Baghai said, “we are not going to be able to continue to support Zahedi”.

3. Baghai said that he believed that Iran had never profited from oil and could live on “oilless economy”. He said that he would support “an honorable settlement based on nine points of nationalization law”. Baghai said that he had appointed a commission to study the oil question and plans to print their report in his newspaper Shahed.

4. Baghai said that Mossadeq used the oil question to silence his opponents and hopes that Zahedi would not do the same. He said that Zahedi could force an oil settlement on the people but that, if Zahedi did so, the people would repudiate the agreement.

5. Baghai is seriously thinking of an open break with Zahedi and said that, if the government continued its mistakes, the country would be ruined.

  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, DDO Files, Job 80–01701R, Box 3, Folder 12, Misc. Correspondence—TPAJAX. Secret.