The Pittsburgh Press (February 7, 1946)
Background of news –
Iran after two wars
By Bertram Benedict
The UNO Assembly has tentatively set the coming Saturday as the date for ending its first meeting, and hopes that by that time much progress will have been achieved by Russia and Iran in setting the dispute between them.
Iran, then called Persia, submitted to the League of Nations formed after World War I an appeal much like its appeal, on last January 19, to the United Nations Organization formed after World War II. In each case the new organization of the nations was anxious to avoid action which might disrupt it before it could get firmly established.
In each case the alleged aggressor was Russia. And in each case the world organization left the problem to negotiations between the two states.
Prior to World War I, Iran was recognized as a buffer state between Russia and British India. In 1907, Russia and Great Britain constituted the southern part of Iran, where the British had obtained oil concessions, a British sphere of influence, and the northern part a Russian sphere. During the war Czarist forces moved into northern Iran and British forces took over an Iranian port on the Persian Gulf.
British domination expected
After the war it seemed for a time as though Iran were to be British-dominated. In August 1919, Tehran signed an agreement with London whereby only British experts were to be employed in the Iranian government. (In 1911 London had supported Russia in forcing the Shah’s government to dismiss an American, W. Morgan Shuster, hired by Iran to reorganize its finances). Great Britain was to supply officers and equipment for the Shah’s army. to help improve Iran’s communications, and to provide a substantial loan.
But by May 1920, the Soviet government had defeated some of the counter-revolutionary movements aimed at overthrowing it; in that month Soviet troops landed on the south shore of the Caspian Sea and defeated an Iranian army led by Czarist officers. The Shah appealed to the Council of the League of Nations.
The League had been officially in existence only five months, and although the Council had held several meetings, the Assembly had not yet met. The Council told Iran to negotiate directly with Moscow.
New Russian treaty drawn
The result of those negotiations was the Russian-Iranian treaty of February 26, 1921, still in force. At that time the new Soviet government was in its idealistic phase of foreign policy, and the treaty was more favorable to Iran than the world had expected.
The Soviet government “immutably” renounced the “policy of force” toward Iran which, the treaty said, had been pursued by the Czarist governments. The Soviet government would not help in any way to “weaken or violate the sovereignty of Iran.”
Russia reserved the right to send troops into Iran only if a third country should try to “realize a rapacious policy” toward Iran, or should try to use Iran as a base for operations against Russia. And Russian troops would be withdrawn as soon as any threat to Russia had been removed.