Evening star., 1953-08-16
Mossodegh's Moneuver
u. S. Moves Cautiously
In Face of Ironion Action
By NicoIos de Rochefort

by NIcoloS
Every ominous to the United
States" are the words that
President Eisenhower has used
to describe the newest develop
mentS in Iran, where Premier
Mossadegh has moved toward
getting rid of his Parliament"
The National Security Council,
top strategic planning body of
the United States Government.
has been known to be deeply
concerned about the Iran Situ-
alton, and the possibilities for
Communist infiltration there,
for some time.
The question is: What can
the United States do to prevent
the chaos from deepening to
the point where the Commu-
niStS can take over weakened
Trans oil and strategic posi-
tion in the Middle East? Iran
and the Soviet Union already
are discussing a future meet
ing to work out mutual prob
lems.'
To derive the answer, one
must first review what has been
happening in Iran. At the mo-
ment, the temperamental Ira
nian Premier is taking a new
step toward transformation of
the constitutional Iranian gov
ernment into a totalitarian
dictatorship of the Fascist
type.
Bosic Freedoms Abolished
First he restricted, then he
finally abolished altogether
the basic freedoms of speech,
press and assembly. Then he
wrested the control of the
army from the hands of the
Shah, who held this power
from the constitution. AS the
next step, he all but destroyed
the Majlis-or Iranian Parlia-
ment-by forcing members be-
longing to his party to resign.
This permanently deprived the
Mails of a quorum.
Although prevented from
meeting in session. however,
the Parliament still existed.
So DR.. Mossadegh just recent
ly decided to destroy the
Nails altogether and carry
out new elections which would
secure him a dummy Parlia-
ment at his command.
According to the constitu-
ton, the right of dissolution
of the Mails belongs to the
Shah. That did not matter.
DR.. Mossadegh declared that
"the will of the people Chat
usual alibi of dictators) was
above the law" And he or
dered a plebiscite on the
question of the dissolution, by
a decree which at the same
time laid down the rules which
were to govern the vote. The
rules were of a strictly totali-
tartan character. Each elec-
ton district had two polling
booths. one for "yes" (favor-
ing dissolution). the other one
for mo" against it,. Fur
thermore, each of the ballots
had to be clearly inscribed with
the name of the voter, the
number and place of issue of
his identity card. In other
words, every vote was to be
checked.
So Per Cent
The balloting first took place
in Teheran, the capital, and
then in the rural districts.
The metropolitan voting set
the pattern-more than SO per
cent for dissolutior-and the
rural polls followed suit.
It ought to be mentioned,
however. that the religious
leader and bitter political foe
of DR.. Mossadegh, Mullah Ay-
atullah KaShani, had con-
demned the plebiscite and or
dered his numerous followers
to boycott it. Not many did.
This is the usual way of to-
talitarian dictatorS: First. the
Parliament is prevented from
exercising its legislative func-
ton and it's check on the ex-
ecutive. Then, the people are
bullied or intimidated into a
fake plebiscite inevitably favor
able to the dictator. Upon