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

advance
against oil. In effect he is making this a condition for
agreeing to any negotiations. He said he would not accept American
aid.54

The joint
Anglo-American reply to Musaddiq’s points, which was made
in early October of 1952, provoked the Iranian Prime Minister. It
made no reference to Musaddiq’s points. Britain and America in their
response simply complained, ‘that the previous proposals had been
misunderstood, and that they did not mean what Dr. Musaddiq thought
they had said.’ 55

The
Iranian Prime Minister, this time, was determined to be firm and
not to give Britain and America any further consideration. Musaddiq
wrote to the Americans blaming the British Government for the
nineteen months’ delay for a settlement, following the
nationalisation of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company. The British were
emphatic on compensation for losses, resulting from the unilateral
ending of the 1933 Agreement, and viewed Musaddiq’s points as
unreasonable. Dr. Musaddiq, on 16th October, announced over the
radio his intention of breaking off diplomatic relations with the
United Kingdom. On 22nd October, diplomatic relations between Iran
and Britain were broken off, soon after the last member of the
British Embassy left Iran. ‘Iran should be left to “stew” for a
bit’,56 said a British Foreign Office Official.

In spite
of the fact that there were no diplomatic relations between
Britain and Iran, the United States Government did not give up hope
of a settlement. The United States officials did not believe that
the victory of Eisenhower in the presidential election of November
1952 would lead to any change of policy.