The Impact of Evolutions of World War II on the Failure of Achieving the Transit Goals of the 1319 AH/ 1940 Soviet-Iranian Treaty of Commerce and Navigation

One of the goals of the 1319 AH/1940 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Iran and the Soviet Union was that Iran use the Soviet Union's land to continue the transit of goods to and from Germany. However, the achievement of this goal was challenged due to the evolutions in European battle fields in Tir 1320 AH/June 1941. Thus, the present historical research aspires to analyze the effect of the developments of World War II on the aforementioned goal. The research hypothesis is that the change in Germany's military aims in the battle fields of World War II and the invasion of the Soviet Union led to the failure of the transit goals of the treaty. The findings suggest that the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1320 AH/1941 caused the stopping of the goods in transit between Iran and Germany and the Soviet Union's invasion of Iran on Shahrivar 3, 1320/ August 25, 1941 exacerbated the problem. The Soviets, following their invasion of Iran, seized all the goods that belonged to Iran and were stored in factory sites, warehouses, and customhouses under the pretext of being German merchandise, hence failing the transit goals of the treaty.