89. Extract from the President’s Daily Security Brief1 2
[Omitted here is material unrelated to Iran]
—The Shah is feuding once again with the consortium of oil companies and Ambassador MacArthur feels that “the moment of truth” has come for the consortium and the Shah. The Shah claims that the consortium continues to be totally unresponsive and negative toward his proposals that they increase the amount of oil they are lifting for sale in non-consortium markets. He had tried to be reasonable and fair but the companies seemed to think that they owned the oil and could push the host countries around. The Shah said that he would make one final proposition to the consortium, which, if it did not accept, would oblige him to seek legislative action—an action which would be based on “United Nations papers that make clear that mineral resources of a country belonged to the country itself rather than the foreign exploiting companies”.
Secretary Richardson in Cairo and Ambassador MacArthur in Tehran covered most of the same points again with Prime Minister Hoveyda. The Prime Minister on behalf of the Shah asked that the Shah’s concerns on the consortium and on continuing U.S. military supply be passed to you. (Tab A)
[Omitted here is material unrelated to Iran]
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, President’s Office Files, Presidential Handwriting, Box 7, Folder Presidential Handwriting, October 1970. Top Secret; Sensitive. Contains Codeword. The president wrote on the memorandum, “PETER—tell these oil barons—American security is vitally involved-keep Henry advised of your progress.” Tab A was not found. The full report of the Shah’s remarks is in Telegram 4335 from Tehran, October 3 (Ibid., RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, PET 6 IRAN).↩
- The report discussed the Shah’s feud with the oil companies, and his assertion that he might be forced to seek a “legislative solution” based on the UN principle that mineral resources belonged to countries rather than exploiting foreign companies.↩