Word: khuzistan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mossadegh in politics. Ayatulla Kashani is a zealot of Islam who has spent his life fighting the infidel British in Iraq and Iran. He controls the Teheran mobs (except those controlled by the Communists), and his terrorist organization assassinated Razmara. Hussein Makki controls the oil-rich province of Khuzistan, in which the Abadan refinery lies. When the British got out, Mossadegh put Makki in charge of the oil installations. Makki's view on oil: close up the wells, pull down the refinery and forget about it. Neither Makki, Kashani nor Mossadegh has ever shown any interest in rational plans...
Such an approach was pure demagoguery. Iran's poverty was more the fault of an inefficient government and an oppressive landlord system than of any foreign influence. The British could be blamed, however, for having failed to do something about inefficiency and oppression. For its workers in the Khuzistan fields, Anglo-Iranian has built model dispensaries, schools and recreation grounds, but it has made no effort to integrate itself in the life of the country. In 1951, swimming pools and flush toilets for the oil workers make a poor substitute for a long-term policy...