LONDON: The background to the recent resignation of the Persian Prime Minister Mohammad Syed was explained in a dispatch [...]. The dispatch among other matters refers to the question of granting extensive oil concessions to a foreign government and states:

“The Persian Government insists that it has every right to make any decision at all and that no foreign Government has any right, whatever, to bring pressure to bear upon it to take decisions that in its opinion are inconsistent with the country’s national independence.” Mohammad Syed rebuts the Russian assertions that Persian public opinion as reflected by Teheran Press wants the concession to be granted, and declares that the Persian Government wishes to express its profound regret [...] that at this critical moment of war, the authorities of the Soviet Government have seen fit to sever relations with the legitimate Prime Minister of Persia and take action tantamount to interference in the country’s internal affairs.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Cairo,] Egypt’s Council of Ministers has granted the Internat­io­nal Red Cross Society [...] £5,000 to buy food and medicine for Moslem Albanians.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2019