761.91/200: Telegram

The Chargé in Iran ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State

152. Minister of Finance9b who dined with me last night said the news from Finland was again causing the Government to take an extremely grave view of the immediate outlook (see also my telegrams 120 and 128). Breakdown of international law and the complete upheaval in Eastern Europe had brought distinctly increased dangers to Iran which no mere desire for detachment from the quarrels of others or a noncommittal policy in foreign affairs could avoid. Almost every hour seemed to develop new situations and the whole Near and Middle East was now dominated by the threat of force.

The Minister, whose wife is Russian, then said that although Iran had furnished no pretext whatever for a change in her relations with Moscow, all Iranian economic overtures toward a commercial agreement had recently been coldly rejected. He feared secret understanding with Reich under which Soviet Union could seek to revive her dominant position in the northern provinces. With an eye on Kirkuk and the Iranian oil fields Moscow would doubtless like to accuse Iran of resisting legitimate Soviet demands because encouraged by the British to do so presumably in order to become a base for the invasion of Russia! He thought that not unlike Japan in the Far East, the Soviets were now planning a “new order” for the Middle East by adroit opportunism and a cynical defiance of reason and justice. Unless therefore the end of this war saw the destruction of bolshevism, as well as nazism, the menace of freedom and civilization would not have been removed.

Engert
  1. Rezaqoli Khosrovi.