Chapter 982: Lending a Hand

It was not that de Gaulle or Georges Pidoule were uncomfortable with the presence of American troops in France.

Rather, it is the fact that France is quite vocal at all levels, from top to bottom, and this is not something that can be suppressed by talking about the unity of the free world.

Not to get rid of the American troops in France, to deal with the problem of Algeria, a group of independent Algerian leaders were able to enter the United States without restriction, which is not only known to the United Kingdom, but also France has its own intelligence service, which is well aware of this.

Suspicious allies, France than the United Kingdom to recognize this point, from the beginning of de Gaulle’s rise to power, has been the expulsion of foreign troops in the country, as a matter of necessity to be done.

“Send a memorandum to London and Washington.” De Gaulle said to his old friend Georges Pidul, “Let it be said that now that NATO is no longer adapted to the basic security needs of the free world as a whole, and that France’s responsibilities extend to all parts of the world, it is proposed that a council of the three great powers of the U.S., Great Britain, and France be established in NATO to hold decision-making power in world political and strategic questions.”

This memorandum was immediately sent from Paris, but at this time the British Foreign Secretary was in the Middle East, and now, although it was judged that there was little hope of being able to solve the Iranian problem, it was not easy to make a trip to talk about it.

Because the foreign secretary is meeting with the Iranian prime minister Mossadegh, this memorandum from London conveyed, Alan Wilson, the permanent undersecretary first saw, a look at him to understand what is going on, “Oh, to withdraw from NATO.”

From de Gaulle’s rise to power this is the nail in the coffin, France at least thinks it is not worse than Britain, Britain is in NATO as deputy commander and secretary general of NATO, and then France is treated the same as Belgium and Holland? It is true that some of them are unacceptable to the French.

“Permanent Undersecretary, what does this telegram say.” Dixon didn’t hear his top man’s muttering, his voice was too low.

“Oh, nothing major. A memo to wait until the minister has finished talking and we inform him of the memo.” Alan Wilson had a bemused look on his face, describing things as lightly as he could.

He was actually still calculating how much of the world’s oil reserves the Persian Gulf countries that Britain could still control, after the loss of Iran, could still occupy, and to be counted in terms of acreage, the big Middle Eastern powers were, of course, unquestionably Saudi Arabia and Iran.

But now Saudi Arabia does not have the status of the latter, the gold standard solid petrodollar did not appear. Countries are on the gold standard. Simply put Saudi Arabia is currently in the situation of selling the country without a door.

Currently the United States choose to support the object, because the gold standard factors, not only to have oil, but also their own strength is not too bad.

Saudi Arabia in the eyes of the United States is a weak chicken. On the contrary, Iran as the successor to the ancient Persian state, the population of more than 20 million, less than four million people than the Saudi Arabia has the strength of much more, Iran is not only a lot of oil, and self-sufficiency, support is a good helper.

Saudi Arabia’s population is so little, military strength is not good, the area is large but are desert, in the eyes of the United States value greatly reduced.

And because of the Israeli factor, the Arab countries among the weight of the countries, whether it is the Republic of the form of pro-Soviet Syria, or the monarchy tends to Britain’s Egypt, Iraq, the common point is hostile to Israel.

Even if the United States support Saudi Arabia, the Arab world, as no say, rather than this is better to support a large area of land, the infrastructure can also be, the population of more than 20 million people in Iran.

Compared with Iran, Saudi Arabia, which is not even of high status in the Arab world, really has little value in the eyes of the U.S. But Saudi Arabia is not important compared to Iran.

But Saudi Arabia and Iran is not important, does not mean that Saudi Arabia can be arbitrary British pinch, Saudi Arabia has long voted for the United States. Britain wants to keep the existing interests of the United States may not be able to find the opportunity, want to take any action against Saudi Arabia, the United States is absolutely not dry.

If this time can not let Iran turn back, the two largest countries in the Middle East, the United Kingdom has lost all influence.

But even so, with a strong key political reserves in later life Allen Wilson, almost immediately thought of the Middle East countries’ oil reserves and percentage, in the Persian Gulf, the world’s largest oil depot among them. Saudi Arabia is of course the unquestionable first, Iran is the unstable second.

Iran’s oil reserves are actually not pulling away from the other countries, not much more than Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE.

Why did Saddam annex Kuwait later, on the one hand Iraq was really overwhelmed by foreign debt.

Another aspect is a larger goal, Iraq plus Kuwait, oil reserves and Saudi Arabia have been comparable, Iraq also occupies the two river basin natural conditions than Saudi Arabia is much better, after the annexation of Kuwait, already as a power in the Arab world, Iraq, wielded up the big stick of oil, can be much more powerful than Saudi Arabia.

Together with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, which do not exist yet, but are under British protection, these pocket emirates.

Even if it loses control of Iran, the remaining Persian Gulf oil under British control will still fulfill its imperial strategy.

Alan Wilson is even calculating the cost of extraction, which is known to be extremely low in Saudi Arabia, and if you want to create competition, the average country is no match for Saudi Arabia. Considering the distance, Libya can actually compete with Saudi Arabia. The direct mining cost is not Saudi Arabia’s rival, but Libya is close to Europe and does not have to pay the Suez Canal tolls.

Kuwait and the UAE are competitive with Saudi Arabia, but Iraq’s costs are not competitive with Saudi Arabia’s. As for Iran, the cost of extraction is still above those countries.

The legacy of the British Empire is, after all, rich, and with Alan Wilson supporting his wife and the discovery of oil reserves in Libya. Calculated the cards in his hand, as long as he can keep the rest of the existing achievements, even if it is the loss of Iran, can still implement the strategy in his head.

“What if this is used as an excuse to kidnap the European market and Iraq, Kuwait, and the Emirate to establish a link between the market and the source of energy? That wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

In the eyes of the other diplomats, the corners of the top boss’s mouth twitched, pacing back and forth in a delirious manner, his face full of concentration, as if he was exhausting himself in the future of the British Empire, but in fact he was overjoyed in his heart, what a good excuse.

Just take the Iranian oil crisis as an excuse to push for the establishment of a small OPEC, and he already has a justifiable reason, as long as the Foreign Secretary asks, he will provide advice.

Bit by bit, time passed and Harold Wilson finally ended the talks and walked out of the conference room. Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh was close behind, with the same stony look on his face, it was clear that the talks hadn’t gone well.

“We lost Iran.” Harold Wilson spoke in a low voice, “This is a defiance of Britain.”

Alan Wilson looked to Mossadegh, the Iranian Prime Minister, who did not retort, apparently acquiescing that Harold Wilson’s words were the truth, and spoke, “Prime Minister Mossadegh, perhaps you think that this is a good thing for Iran. But it is not so easy, and you will know the consequences of this humiliation of Britain in the future.”

“This gentleman, is it a mistake for Iran to take back its interests.” Mossadegh asked rhetorically after hearing this.

“We already know who is backing Iran, words need not be spoken.” Alan Wilson is not making a fraudulent set of Mossadegh’s words, MI6 has already made a judgment that behind Iran is the grown-up white-eyed wolf in leaps and bounds.

Things have come to a head, regardless of what the Pahlavi or Mossadegh is thinking, since Iran has made up its mind, Alan Wilson speech has become less polite.

Although the loss was a competitor of his wife’s industry, British Petroleum, it was also the property of the British Empire, and out of the point of view of defending British interests, he always had to say a few words.

“Do the British still think it’s the age of imperialism?”

“It now seems that King Pahlavi’s presiding over the Prime Minister to finalize the oil allocation back into place was a wise move.”

“You guys have to think so, and I won’t deny it.” Alan Wilson looked at the Iranian diplomats who were showing patriotic feelings and said condescendingly, “Things will never be left like that, and don’t think Iran is going to get anything out of this, after all, Britain only has a population of 50 million people, while the US and the USSR both have three times the population of the UK, and the Iranians think that after suffering a big loss in providing for the UK that they’re going to have a better day with another fart protector? ”

“Give less and the benefits won’t be felt by a country with a bigger population. Can you Iran afford to give more? The population is growing, countries with a few million people can get by selling resources, but definitely not Iran.”

“When you guys go back and think about it, isn’t that the truth? Can a country of tens of millions of people give everything to oil? How much benefit is it prepared to give out to your so-called allies?”

Alan Wilson opened his mouth is never with data to speak, a time to make no rebuttal, Mossadegh stopped the continued argument said, “Iran’s attitude I have explained, we certainly do not want to be hostile to the United Kingdom, but there are involved in Iran’s national interests, there should be more competitors, rather than letting a certain country reside in a monopoly position. Iran’s recovery of oil will be an open call for cooperation and any country can sign a contract with Iran.”

“Britain has made Iran’s attitude clear.” Harold Wilson nodded deeply and stopped talking.

The talks between Britain and Iran ended unhappily, and when the Iranians left, Harold Wilson sat down on his butt and said that he would take a tough approach to defending the interests of the British Empire, and that there was an election coming up, and that the Labor Party could not afford to back down.

Alan Wilson, who had already counted the cards in his hand seven or eight times in the past few days, spoke up at the right time, “Honorable Minister, a telegram has just been forwarded from London that may help us, it’s a change in France.”

“Oh?” Harold Wilson frowned, reading the memo about France wanting to share the leadership of NATO, and finally shook his head, “How is that possible?”

“How is it impossible, even if we don’t stop it, Washington won’t. Why should Britain be the villain? MI6 has already determined that the people causing trouble this time are our dubious allies.”

Alan Wilson threw his hands in the air and whispered with an attitude of unconcern, “Wouldn’t it be better to let the US speak up and refuse.”