Britain had come to appreciate the importance of Iranian Concession it had obtained through William Knox D’Arcy . This , however , did not cause either the company or the British government to be appreciative of and grateful to Iran . On the contrary , their greed and avarice increased with the rising importance and value of oil . Although Iran had declared neutrality in WW1 , warring forces turned Iranian territory into a war zone .Operations of the pipeline that transferred oil from masjid-e-Soleiman to Abadan was interrupted by German inspired saboteurs , and it took 5 months to get it repaired.
