PERSIA AND RUSSIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 November 1945, Page 6

PERSIA AND RUSSIA

INTERVENTION OPPOSED LONDON, November 21. The Persian Prime Minister (Ibraham Hakimi), addressing a special session of the Persian Parliament, appealed to the signatories of the tripartite treaty with Persia (Britain and Russia) not to intervene in Persian internal affairs in respect of the Persian forces’ liberty of action. Reuter’s Teheran correspondent says that Ibraham Hakimi has decided to send a mission to Mosocw to discuss the Azerbaijan re.volt. A military spokesman quoted by the Associated Press gave details of the Russians’ halting of the Persian troops proceeding to Azerbaijan. He said that one Russian officer appeared in a jeep armed with tommy-guns and said he would be obliged to use the tommygun if the Persian troops did not halt and return to Teheran. The Persian commander agreed to halt, but declared that be would remain where he was—at the village of Sharifibad, a few miles from the Russian district headquarters—until orders were received from Teheran. The spokesman added that orders were sent telling the troops to remain there for the present until a decision was reached. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press says: ‘ The Azerbaijan disorders are regarded in Moscow as the result of suppressionist measures by rich landowners. Informed quarters said they were likely to lead, to two developments: (1) a move for autonomy within the Persian State, and (2) the probable postponement of the Red Army’s withdrawal. Meanwhile the chief of the Persian general staff is leaving for the headquarters of the Russian armies in Azerbaijan. Convoys of Persian troops guns, and supplies are standing by on the frontier of the province ready to move in as soon as a settlement is reached between Moscow and Teheran.