Evening star., 1953-08-20
u. ). Watches Iran,
Hoping New Regime
Will Bring Stability
BY John M. Hiehtower
ASsoeiofod Press Stoff Writer

%SSoetoISo TToSS SIorr WIiIor
American officials watched
hopefully today for evidence that
a new regime in Iran, though
born Of violence, would quickly
be able to stabilize the country
and secure it against any Com
munist bid for power.
The task falls to 56-year-old
Fazollah zahedi, a major gen.
eral and friend of Shah Moham-
med Reza Pahlevi. He is re-
garded here as both British
and anti-Soviet. but also as q
hard-headed realist who will
seek practical solutions for his
country'S difficult problems.
Foremost among those prob
lens is the long and bitter dis
pute with Britain over national
tzation of Trans billion dollar
oil industry. The deposed pre-
mier, Mohammed MosSadegh,
repeatedly failed to find a way
out of the oil crisis; there il
hope here that Gen. zahedi may
eventually take a more real
1stic" approach than, in the
American view, Mr.. MoSsadegh
was willing to try.
Watchful Waiting Here.
At the State Department 1t
was evident that officials were
maintaining an attitude of
Watchful waiting toward the out
come Of the revolution itself.
None knew precisely what rem
nants OF popular support the
ousted MoSsadegh might have or
what new explosive elements
could conceivably enter into the
situation.
However, it was felt that Mr..
Mossadegh's ouSter-if it sticks
had removed one element Of
danger to United States inter-
ests in the Middle East. The
aging premier had recently given
the Communist Tudeh Party a
freer rein, in apparent belief that
this served his own political ends
In trying to consolidate his
power.
American officials believe he
was taking grave risk in per-
mitting the Reds to build up
power at a time of great unrest.
How much solid strength they
still may have remains to be seen.
Gen. zahedi is expected to fol-
low a strongly nationalistic line.
At the same time, he is said to
be strong friend and supporter
of the Shah. And the Shah mas
generally been counted here to he
reasonable in his attitude toward
the West.
Off1cials cautioned privately
against expecting any overnight
miracles in the oil dispute. 1t
has gone on too long and feel
ings in Iran are too bitter against
the British to permit that, even
If Gen. Zahedi were so inclined.
He is expected instead to turn
his attention initially to internal
reforms designed to improve the
living conditions of the Iranian
people.
Interned As Pro- -Nazi.
Furthermore. any final oil
settlement must be an Iranian-
British settlement. and Gen. Ia
heidi Is said to have no love for
the British. In 1912, when
Britain and Russia jointly occu-
pied Iran, Gen. Zahedi, who had
an Iranian military command in
the British occupied area, was
arrested by the British on a
charge that he was pro-German.
He sat out the rest Of the war
in an internment camp in
Palestine.
In the long run, however, au-
thorities here feel that if Gen.
Zahedi succeeds in establishing a
regime, he will have to deal with
the oil problem. They think it
may be possible to do business
with him more nationally than
was possible with Mr.. Mossadegh.
The basic unresolved problem
concerns compensation to the
British for the properties they
lost through naturalization. If
Iran will agree to any compensa-
tion plan acceptable to London,
the United States and Britain
jointly will undertake to get
Iranian oil moving in the world
markets again.
Oil has been Trans most i'm
portant source Of revenue, and
the lack of this income. running
into many millions of dollars,
has for the past two years been
at the root of many of Trans
troubles.
Contributed to Downfall.
Mr.. Mossadegh, due to a Brit
ish embargo policy, was never
able to sell Trans oil, and this
was a contributing factor in his
downfall. Others apparently in
cluded his persistent effort to
smash all opposition to his rule
and to get rid of the Shah.
According to reports available
here. the Shah last Saturday
night launched a counter move
to get rid Of Mossadegh and in
stall Gen. zahedi as Premier.
1t did not then succeed and the
Shah himself fled the country.
But yesterdays bloody revolt
demonstrated the existence of
powerful anti-MoSSadegh feel
irgs among both military leaders
Ind the civilian population which
the old Premier proved unable
to cope with.
The specific turn of events
proved somewhat surprising to
officials in Washington, but the
fact that a blowup did occur was
not surprising to them. They
said Mr.. MoSsadegh had been
forcing down the lid on the po-
litical tea kettle in Iran for a
long time and that some kind
of an explosion was inevitable
sooner or later.