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

company
established by the AIOC the exclusive use of these
assets.6

After ten
days of fruitless talks, the British delegation left Iran.
The offer was rejected by the Iranian Government ‘on the grounds
that it was not consistent with the Nationalisation Law’.7 The Iranian Government insisted
on tanker
captains signing receipts which acknowledged the oil to be the
property of the National Iranian Oil Company. The tanker
captains, by arrangement with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,
refused. On 24th June 1951, with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
tankers stopped loading oil at Abadan. Oil export came to a
standstill. Production thus ceased and the whole oil operation
ground to a halt. In the meanwhile the general situation in
Abadan and the oil fields had been deteriorating. The
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s General Manager was accused by the
Persians of committing an act of sabotage. He left Persia as a
bill had been presented to the Majlis on 21st June introducing
the death penalty for the offence of sabotage. However, after
strong representations by the British Government and the United
States Government, Dr. Musaddiq announced that the Bill would be
withdrawn, HMS Mauritius, which had been sent to Iraqi waters
opposite Abadan, was ordered to evacuate all women and children
from Abadan.

By the end of June,
Morrison had already been consulting with the
Cabinet

that
negotiations with Musaddiq were not making any progress, and
that Britain relied too much on the United Nations, thus the
possibilities of military and naval actions had to be reconsidered.
At the same time Britain imposed sanctions on Iran. The export of a
number of goods from the United Kingdom to Iran became prohibited;
good such as alloys, railway trucks, steel, sugar, iron non-ferrous
metals and materials. The British Ambassador in Teheran, Sir Francis
Shepherd, an imperialist of the Curzon school, complained angrily
about the Americans,