July 23, 1952
Mossadegh Is Back as Premier of Iran; Order Is Restored
By ALBION ROSS
EHERAN, Iran. July 22 -- Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was charged again today with forming a Cabinet after the downfall of Ahmad Ghavam yesterday and after he had received an overwhelming vote of support in Parliament.
Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi and Dr. Mossadegh conferred for three hours at Saadabad Palace in the evening. Presumably two principal issues were at stake in the discussions.
One was Dr. Mossadegh's reiteration of his previous demand to have the War Ministry put under his control. The other was said to be the future of the present Parliament, since Dr. Mossadegh had halted the recent Parliamentary elections after only eighty-one out of 136 seats in the chamber had been filled.
While six of the principal newspapers in Teheran, including Ettelaat, did not appear today because National Front partisans let it be known that they would not permit their distribution, business was generally normal throughout the city.
[Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, decided, 9 to 5, that it lacked jurisdiction in the British-Iranian oil dispute. At the same time the court canceled its year-old and unheeded injunction calling for the temporary restoration of the disputed property to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.]
Communists Parade in Iran
Some demonstrations continued in Teheran. Communist groups traveled about the city shouting slogans against the Shah, Britain and the United States.
The most striking event of the day was the presence of a representative of Ayatollah Kashani, powerful Moslem ultra-nationalist leader, at a Communist mass meeting in the central square of this city. The representative read a message from him, promising to combat imperialist colonization of Iran in conjunction with the Communists.
Dr. Mossadegh announced in a radio message that in accord with the vote of Parliament and a decree of the Shah he had agreed to form a new government. Parliament had given its vote of inclination in the morning. With only sixty-four of the eight-one deputies, including the President of the Majlis, present sixty-one voted for Dr. Mossadegh.
In a previous vote of inclination, when he first agreed to form a second Cabinet before he resigned again as a result of the Shah's refusal to give him the Ministry of War, he had received fifty-two votes.
Last Thursday Ghavam received a vote of forty, but had not started to form his government before his resignation yesterday, following violent riots and a general strike.
The Teheran radio announced that Ghavam was planning to flee from the country and that the frontier police had been ordered not to permit him to leave unless he had a permit from the present Government.
Watchers at Ghavam's house reported that he had left by car at noon for an undisclosed destination.
In a demonstration in Parliament Square, extreme Nationalists demanded that he be tried and hanged. Nahd Ali Karimi of Kerman, National Front Deputy, told a throng that national extraordinary courts would set up to try and execute in Parliament Square those responsible for the shooting of demonstrators by policemen and soldiers.
The Fascist Pan-Iranian group was reported to have placed a guard of 300 of its members at the airport to prevent the departure of anyone associated with Ghavam or known as an opponent of Dr. Mossadegh.
Press Building Attacked
Newspapers that supported Ghavam in opposition to Dr. Mossadegh were among those that did not appear. A crowd again attacked the gates of the publishing plant of Ettelaat, largest Iranian newspaper. There were no policemen on duty in the area and printers once again turned out to beat off the attackers. The clash lasted about an hour.
In various parts of the city National Front partisans with arm bands took the place of policemen. Near Parliament they had a regular police jeep and a broadcaster and asked the crowds to be calm since the people were now doing the policing.
Kazem Sheibani, close associate of Dr. Mossadegh whom Ghavam had expelled from his post of Governor General of the Oil Province of Khuzistan two days ago, charging that he was fomenting strikes instead of suppressing them, was named Director of Police and he assumed office in the evening.
About 6,000 student Communists and Communist workers took part in the rally in the central square. Thunderous applause greeted Kashani's message that he had decided to ally his Moslem combatant's movement with the Communist Anti-Imperialist Association to form a united front.
"It was the union of you workers and the Iranian people that brought us victory against British imperialism," Kashani's representative said.
Communist leaders went up onto the balcony of the Teheran municipal building to direct the meeting from there.
"Americans must quit Iran," declared one speaker. "The formation of a united front is demanded by our beloved leader Dr. Mossadegh. Long live the victory of Iranian workers under the leadership of Mossadegh."
The Communists had put on a display of iron discipline, marching in columns down broad Nadri Avenue bearing banners reading: "Death to Anglo-American imperialism."
A rift occurred in the common front of the extreme Nationalists and Communists, however, when a group of Communists tried to deface a statue of the Shah on Parliament Square. National Front Members promptly attacked the Communist group and the Reds abandoned the idea.
Early in the morning a crowd of about 5,000, chiefly National Front partisans, had marched on Parliament Square carrying the bodies of nine persons killed in yesterday's fighting. After having received assurances from National Front Deputies that the victims would be "avenged," the throng proceeded to a neighboring mosque. Later the bodies were taken to a cemetery.
They Insist Oil Still Belongs to Anglo-Iranian Company
ONDON, July 22--British hopes for an eventual settlement of the protracted oil dispute with Iran took two setbacks today with the return of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh to office in Teheran and the decision of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, that it was not competent to hear the oil dispute.
Neither decision ostensibly altered Britain's attitude which is that the oil in Iran still belongs to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company by right of its concession from the Iranian Government. Neither the renaming of Dr. Mossadegh nor the court's decision helps to resolve the main problem--to resume the production of oil in Iran and its sale abroad.
Despite the International Court's decision not to act, the oil company intends to maintain its position and to resist by leal and commercial means the sale of Iranian oil abroad. The court did not decide on the merits of that attitude; it simply decided not to decide, observers here emphasized.