The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 217
The Gulf Crisis & The New World Order Western interests, in view of the tremendous influence and power-base of the Company. One can imagine the size and stature of the Anglo Iranian Oil Company from the fact that the amount of royalty from oil proceeds that was paid by the Company to the Iranian government, under the terms of the agreement, was almost half of the total national budget of Iran. The amount paid by the Company to the British government as their share was much more than this, and the profit share they retained for themselves was ten times larger than what they paid the British government. So the Company's profits were about five times the gross national product of Iran. Being so strongly entrenched they could never have imagined that any decision could be taken against their interests. Incidentally, when this matter was about to be put up before the Parliament, the Iranian Prime Minister, who bad the reputation of being on the payroll of the Company and was known as their outright supporter, presented a report according to which any decision to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company would seriously hurt the interest of Iran. This statement caused an uproar in the Parliament, and the next day or shortly afterwards, the Prime Minister was assassinated. Dr. Mossadeq was then elected as the new Prime Minister of Iran. Since Dr. Mossadeq was known lo be truly faithful and loyal to the interests of Iran, therefore the British sounded the war bells. The British air-borne division, based in Mauritius was alerted for a possible attack on Iran. Then Britain contacted the United States for consultations. The Americans suggested that an act of open aggression would not be the right approach to adopt and that they should join hands and deal with this matter in a different way. So Britain sought U. S. help in conspiring to overthrow the Iranian government. The details for this plot were worked out between Mr. Sinclair representing the British ISi and Mr. Kim Roosevelt of the CIA. The U. S. government used its international influence lo bring about complete boycott of Iran's oil by the rest of the world. Since half of Iran's budget revenue was from the oil proceeds, the boycott of its oil export adversely affected its revenues, and Iran experienced a great financial crises. In the midst of this crisis, Dr. Mossadeq requested the U. S. President in 1952 for short-term financial assistance to overcome this crisis and that, once this crisis was overcome, Iran would readily repay this loan. The U. S. President replied that it was against the interest of the American tax payer for 217