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

Lord
Minto, Wellcslcy’s successor as Governor-General of India,
immediately sent Malcolm to Persia again, as the new Franco-Persian
relationship caused concern in India, with instructions to prevent
the French from occupying a position in Persia. By this time France
had become increasingly influential in Teheran. The British envoy
was not received by the Emperor of Persia, and was asked to
negotiate with the subordinate court of the Prince-Governor of Fars
at Shiraz, a Persian province, near the Persian Gulf. The British
envoy immediately returned to Calcutta and urged Minto to send an
expedition to the Persian Gulf with the object of establishing a
base there. General Sir John Malcolm recommended to the
Governor-General of India that a base in the Persian Gulf would
place a lever in the government’s hand and therefore it would no
longer be necessary to rely on the Persians.
7

However, the
Governor-General sent a different envoy to Persia, as
he did not think Malcolm’s further missions would improve the
atmosphere between Persia and Britain. The new envoy was Sir Harford
Jones. His task was to mend Anglo-Persian relationships which
deteriorated under Malcolm.

Jones negotiated a treaty
whereby the Shah denounced all previous
engagements, and undertook to prevent the passage of European armies
to India, in return for a promise of financial and military
assistance in the event of the invasion of Persia by a European
power. The preliminary engagement negotiated by Jones in 1809 formed
the basis of the Defensive Treaty of 1814 between Britain and
Persia. The reason behind the surprising and sudden improvement of
relations between Britain and Persia was that Czar Alexander of
Russia and Napoleon had just concluded a peace agreement between
themselves. So far as Teheran was concerned, the Franco-Persian
alliance was meant to be an anti- Russian policy. Therefore such a
move between France and Russia caused consternation in Teheran. The
Franco-Russian agreement took place as far as the