Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎7r] (13/248)

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19. It was agreed at Potsdam (on about the 23rd July) that British and
Soviet forces should withdraw from Tehran at once and that the Council of
foreign Ministers at their first meeting in September 1945 should consider further
stages in the withdrawal of Allied forces from Persia.
20. The Foreign Office instructed His Majesty’s Ambassador to make with
his Soviet colleague a simultaneous notification to the Persian Government of the
decision to withdraw from lehran. He should not at present mention the
^ proposed discussion by the Foreign Ministers of further withdrawals. The
co-ordination of arrangements for withdrawal of British, Soviet and United
States forces from Tehran should be arranged locally by the embassies concerned
The following were the principal points for discussion :—
(a) The timing of the withdrawal. Our first aim should be to agree with
the Russians on as early a date as possible for the evacuation from
. Tehran of all combatant troops.
(b) The arrangements for the liquidation of British military assets.
(c) The future of the British Airways service to Tehran.
21. As the Soviet Government obstinately refused to send instructions to
their ambassador here, His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires (Mr. Lascelles) informed
the Minister for Foreign Affairs alone on the 2nd August that British and Soviet
forces would be withdrawn from Tehran at once. Mr. Sepahbodi received the
communication with gloom because he had been hoping for much more and because
he had not had a similar communication from the Soviet Ambassador. He also
enquired whether “Tehran” meant the town alone or surrounding district.
Mr. Lascelles replied that our nearest point would be Qum, and we hoped that the
- nearest Russian point to the west would be Qasvin (which was almost equi
distant). The next day Mr. Lascelles informed the Soviet Ambassador of his
action and the latter seemed ready to admit that the Russian troops should with
draw to Qasvin. As the embassy had foreseen, however, he then fell back on the
zones as defined in the exchange of letters of August 1941. (This had laid down
that the British zone should be Khuzistan and the Kermanshah area, while the
Russian zone would be Azerbaijan and part of Khorassan; Meshed was not to
be occupied, but Russian troops were to guard the airfield.) He did not regard
the withdrawal of the British troops to Qum as the equivalent of the Soviet with
drawal to Qasvin, because he argued that Qasvin was in the Soviet zone and Qum
was far outside the British zone. His Majesty’s Ambassador consequently
pointed out to the Foreign Office that there was little hope of persuading the
Russians at the Council of Foreign Ministers to withdraw from any part of their
zone while we not only remained in ours but spread far beyond it.
22. With regard to point (c) above, the embassy pointed out on the
5th August that the withdrawal of troops involved a prior decision about foreign
air lines using Tehran as a terminal. The position of air lines was this :—
(a) British Overseas Airways Corporation was a State line for the period
of the war, though if there was room it carried private passengers on
payment. The authority under which it operated to Tehran would
come to an end with the departure of the last of the foreign troops and
the consequent cessation of the Anglo-Soviet-Persian Treaty.
(b) The Russians operated a military airline between Russia and Tehran
and, in addition, used military aircraft for cabotage between Tehran,
Meshed, Pahlevi and Tabriz.
(c) American Army Air Force operated military aircraft to and from Tehran
carrying private passengers when it suited them.
(d) The French operated a military airline by agreement with us. The
* agreement was constantly infringed by the acceptance of civilian non
official passengers.
23. The aerodrome position was this :—
(a) Mehrabad was used by the British Overseas Airways Corporation, the
Royal Air Force, the French and the Persian Air Service. The ground
staff was provided by the Royal Air Force.
(b) QnJeh Murgeh was occupied by the Russians and the Americans, the latter
being there as our tenants.
If we retained British Airways with its present status, the Russians could
argue that this justified the retention of their airlines as a military measure.
The embassy recommended therefore that British Airways should apply to the