The British government blamed the situation on hoarding, inefficient distribution and an inadequate transport system, but Washington suspected that the British had deliberately manipulated the food supply to further their own political objectives. Meanwhile, the Soviets banned food shipments from the north, claimed that they needed the resources for the people and soldiers fighting the Germans and blamed British mismanagement for the famine since no similar conditions existed in the Soviet-held areas. The Iranian public accused the Allies of looting the country and pushing Iran into inflation and starvation.

Just purely British looting. The liquidation of the food infrastructure to generate profit for industrialists during war. Eventually the Soviets sent food aid, but that was after the famine got really bad and the British has spent a lot of time just bloviating about how backwards and uncivilized the starving Iranians were.