After all the months of turmoil in Iran the confusion is beginning to disclose a discernible pattern. One crisis piled on top of another with hardly time for the dust to settle before a new outbreak of rioting takes place. Nevertheless the thread running through all the upheavals is beginning to emerge.

Premier Mossadegh has eliminated doubt that he aspires to impose dictatorial rule on Iran by attacking Shah Pahlevi. [sic—Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] Dr. Mossadegh has said he does not aspire to be president of an Iranian republic. That is doubtless true. But his actions speak louder than words and his course proves his determination to rule in fact regardless of the title he chooses to adopt in his controversy with the British over oil resources.

Mossadegh managed first of all to eliminate what he termed “[illegible] influence” in government. Then he broke with his foreign opposition and install a legislature he can manage. Right now Mossadegh is fighting to reduce the monarch to impotence by forcing the Shah to surrender the remnants of military and civil [illegible].

It is a dangerous game Dr. Mossadegh is playing at the moment the Communist Party in Iran is backing the Premier against the Shah. No great amount of vision is required to predict that, once the Shah is eliminated, the Communists will turn against Mossadegh. Evidently Mossadegh believes the dictatorship he covets is worth the gamble.