The Waiting Game

Clad in pajamas, lying in bed, Mohammed Mossadegh, the old man of Iran, played the waiting game. Five times in two years either Britain or the U.S. had hurried to his bedside with offers to settle the dispute over Iran's nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.'s billion-dollar properties. Five times he said no. Each time he left the door ajar and each time his callers returned bearing still more tempting offers. For the longer he waited in his bed, the weaker Mossadegh seemed, and the more anxious the West grew to prop him up against the Communists.

Five weeks ago, U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson brought Offer No. 6. It was by far the best. Britain offered to drop its legal blockade of Iran's oil, asked in return that an impartial third party be chosen to fix the compensation for Anglo-Iranian. The U.S. added its own bonus: a promise to purchase $130 million worth of Iran's oil, $50 million of the amount to be advanced immediately on account.

Last week, on the second anniversary of oil nationalization, a recording machine at Mossadegh's bedside took down his answer to Offer No. 6 so that it might be rebroadcast to the nation. It was no, no, a thousand times no. Then Mossadegh settled back in his bed, and the door was again left ever so slightly ajar.

One Middle East oil expert, gloomily watching this familiar performance, was convinced that it is useless to press an oil agreement on Mossadegh, because he could not keep it if one were made. Unstable old Mossadegh stays in power by being antiforeign; for him to sign an agreement would be to surrender this source of his popularity to evil old Mullah Kashani and the Tudeh Communists. The solution, says this expert, is not to make an oil agreement in hopes of bolstering Iran's government, but first to bolster Iran's government so that it might keep whatever oil agreement it made. Nearest to a stable element in Iran's government is the Shah, this expert believes: if helped by the U.S., the Shah might be transformed from the weak ruler he now seems.

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