British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.

visitors
to Britain, and kept a family suite at the Grosvenor House
Hotel. The Rashidian brothers played a crucial role for Britain, as
will be shown in this chapter. Their view about Musaddiq was the
same as Zaehner’s.29

Zaehner
was close to Herbert Morrison, the Labour Foreign Secretary,
and held his brief directly from him. Morrison was contemptuous of
Mussadiq. He instructed Zaehner to manipulate internal politics in
Iran to organise the fall of Musaddiq. Morrison also sent a senior
officer of MI6, called C.M. Woodhouse, to form a team with Zaehner
at the British Embassy in Teheran for this operation.

As Robin
Zaehner was sent to Iran first, before Woodhouse, the
alliance with the Rashidian brothers, by the time Woodhouse arrived
in Teheran in August 1951, had been re-established. During the
Second World War the Rashidian brothers and Zaehner worked together
in Iran against the Nazis. In fact, since the War, their network had
remained intact. They were experts on mob manipulation. Woodhouse,
the senior MI6 officer, was impressed by Zaehner’s capability in
enlisting the Rashidians, however, as time progressed he considered
Zaehner,

as a
dangerous amateur so far as serious undercover work was
concerned. Zaehner himself did not possess the stamina or the
ruthless determination to see his anti-Musaddiq plans through to
completion. Perhaps, since he had a philosophical temperament, he
was plagued with self-doubt. He began to question the wisdom of
intervention. He yielded control of contact with the Rashidians to
Woodhouse.30

C. M.
Woodhouse then flew to London to consult the Foreign Office
officials. By now the Conservative Party was in power and Anthony
Eden was the Foreign Secretary. He met Eden and was authorised by
Eden to set up a joint