In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Religious uprising
What I want to say now is that I am grateful for the kind message your leaders have sent.
We suffered a lot in the course of fifty-odd years of the Pahlavi dynasty's illegitimate rule. Under the suppression of this man, Muhammad Rida, and his father, we underwent much misery. Our nation was deprived of all freedoms. Our country was deprived of a proper independence. The nation reached the end of its tether because of this tyranny, and staged an uprising, a great Islamic uprising. This uprising was not merely political; it is a big religious one. The people with the faith they had, and in spite of the difficulties they were experiencing, confronted with their bare hand a regime which, by virtue of alien support, was fully equipped with the latest weaponry, and prevailed over the super powers their faith and fists. We are determined to fight to the end any power that meddles in the affairs of our country
The value of life in the light of freedom and independence
We consider no value for a life under anyone's dominance. The value of life is in freedom and independence. Our religious commandments, which are among the most modern ones, have determined our route. We will fight any powers trying to intrude our country, relying on those commandments and following the leadership of the great man of the world, Muhammad (s). Those days are past when a single individual could dominate a whole nation; an individual who was himself appointed by alien powers who meant to infringe our country through him. The nations' determination counts today; and the nation is obliged to oppose any powers, in defense of the country, using its fortitude and belief in Islamic commandments. We ask all powers not to intervene in our country's affairs in any way. If they do not we will have cordial relations with all. As I have repeated many times, we are philanthropists and our prophet- our great prophet- was one too; he took lots of troubles for humanity; and we follow this code too and have friendly relations with all divisions of humanity, with all of the oppressed of the world, on the condition that it is on equal basis and based on mutual respect.
Peaceful relations and co-existence
As a neighboring country- which used to have close relations with Iran, and recently these relations between our nation and the great powers was damaged due to the satanic power of Pahlavi, because of his crimes which was supposed to be backed by the alien support- with some hundreds of kilometers of common border lines, we wish to treat you peacefully and humanely. Of course our government will act according to its expedience in the economic and other official affairs. This government is an Islamic one, under the leadership of the Islamic leaders; so it will never oppress others, no matter how vulnerable they are, and will not stand oppression from others, no matter how powerful they might be.
I ask God Almighty that our relations will be amiable with all governments and nations, so that our nation can be instrumental determining its own destiny and no one will be able to meddle with our domestic affairs. Also we have repeatedly announced that we are not going to store up the gas.
We want to sell our gas at reasonable price and receive currency. The old transactions with the US have been most undesirable ones and we will avoid them. Of course, if anyone wishes to do reasonable business with us, our administration will do it after necessary studies. Besides, the Soviets who are busy here either in trade sector or in the industry, are welcome, as long as what they do is not against our nation's interests or is not considered intervention in our domestic affairs.
[To the translator:] what I said and should be translated is the answer to this letter. «1» This must be translated as an answer to the message they have sent. These were the same points I would write too. You translate what I said and hand it to him as my response, and take the message from him.