Agreement in Persia
The Persian policy in the recent discussions with Russia has been to keep all lines open. Thus while the request for the with- drawal of Russianotroops has been kept before U.N.O., direct negotia- tions concerning an oil agreement have, never been dropped and have now led to the formation of a Russo-Persian oil company to exploit an area running right across North Persia. The policy has in fact paid good interim dividends. Persia has earned some respect for the consistency and cleverness with which a delicate case has been managed. The Security Council of the United Nations has acted with firmness and success in a matter whose importance outstripped the immediate issue and involved fundamental questions of U.N.O's own prestige and power. Even the Russians have blended with their
demands a certain care to maintain a seat at the Security Council, even if nobody was sitting in it. The only discordant note on the Persian side has been the slightly strained distinction drawn between an oil concession and an agreement to form a company with a 5x per cent. Russian interest. On the Russian side there are various grumbles and growls which can less easily be overlooked. Among these are the emphatic claim that the matter was entirely settled by direct negotiation and the statement made in a letter from Mr. Gromyko that the Security Council's decision that Russian troops must be with- drawn from Persia by May 6 was illegal. U.N.O. will have another ticklish task in dealing with this letter. So far its performance has been good but not perfect, for perfection is not possible without the full support of the U.S.S.R. Whether that support will be forth- coming will be tested in the next few months, when it will be ascer- tained first whether the promise that the frontiers of Persia will be clear by May 6 will be kept, and second whether the Russians will accept with equanimity the possible refusal of a new Majlis to ratify the agreement to form an oil company. After its failure to implement the original undertaking to withdraw all troops from Persia by March 2, the Soviet Government can hardly complain if the rest of the world withholds final judgement until these matters are tested by the facts.
