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

and
ultimately intervention. So diplomacy was not enough, though
economic sanctions did help undermine Musaddiq’s position.

In this
way, the Iranian crisis provides an important illustration
of the changes in style of British diplomacy when she was pursuing
her interests in a world that had changed greatly since Britain
gained her dominating position in the Middle East, between 1918 and
1939.

Middle
East, but was reluctant to become one of its members. This
was because Britain was being criticised by the radical Arab
countries ‘for the sake of strengthening the West’s defence (and for
trying to isolate the radical nationalist leader of Egypt, President
Nasser)’.11 America’s membership of the
Baghdad Pact ‘would thus have offended the more radical independent
Arab countries, as indeed it would have Israel, though for rather
different reasons.’ 12

According to the British
Foreign Secretary Selwyn-Lloyd,

Our main purpose in the
Gulf is to ensure fair access to the oil and
stable conditions for its production.13

The
United States nevertheless began to establish its influence in
the Persian Gulf, as developing a close relationship with Iran had
become the United States’ policy towards the zone, which was pointed
out earlier in this chapter.