Fazlollah Zahedi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fazlollah Zahedi
فضل‌الله زاهدی
Minister of Interior
In office
28 April 1951 – 5 August 1951
Prime MinisterMohammad Mosaddegh
Preceded byHossein Ala'
Succeeded byAmirteymour Kalali
Personal details
Born(1892-05-17)17 May 1892
Lieutenant General
Battles/wars
Awards

Fazlollah Zahedi (Persian: فضل‌الله زاهدی, romanized: Fazlollāh Zāhedi, pronounced [fæzlol.lɒ́ːʰ zɒːheˈdiː]; 17 May 1892 – 2 September 1963) was an Iranian military officer and statesman who replaced the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh through a coup d'état supported by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Early life

Early years

Born in

Sheikh Zahed Gilani and Sheikh Safi-ad-Din Ardabili, the eponym of the Safavid dynasty, and through his mother, Djavaher Khanom, he traced his descent to the dynastic ruler Karim Khan Zand. Through him, Zahedi was a distant relative of Mohammad Mosaddegh.[3]

During his service at the

Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabaee's government in 1920 with the help of Meguertitch Khan Davidkhanian
.

During Reza Shah's reign, General Zahedi was named military governor of

Isfahan
division.

Arrest and internment

Following the forced abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, the British came to believe that Zahedi was planning a general uprising in cooperation with German forces, and as one of the worst grain-hoarders, was responsible for widespread popular discontent.[5][6][7] He was arrested in his own office by Fitzroy Maclean, who details the operation, codenamed PONGO, in his 1949 memoir Eastern Approaches. On searching Zahedi's bedroom Maclean found "a collection of automatic weapons of German manufacture, a good deal of silk underwear, some opium, an illustrated register of the prostitutes of Isfahan," and correspondence from a local German agent.[5] Zahedi was flown out of the country and interned in Palestine.[5]

Return from internment

After returning from internment in 1945 during the reign of

Mohammad Reza Shah (Reza Shah's son and successor), General Zahedi became Inspector of military forces in southern Iran. He became once more chief of national police (Shahrbani) in 1949, when Mohammad Reza Shah appointed him as chief of the Shahrbani Police Forces, in order to counter the growing threat of Sepahbod Haj Ali Razmara.[citation needed
]

After 1945

The 1950s

After retiring from the army, he was named Senator in 1950. Zahedi was appointed minister of interior in

Tudeh, which had boldly demonstrated in favor of nationalisation. Both of these moves antagonised the Western Powers, especially the United Kingdom and the United States. Zahedi was dismissed by Prime Minister Mosaddegh after a bloody crackdown on pro-nationalization protesters in mid-1951 in which 20 people were killed and 2000 wounded.[4]

Zahedi finally broke with Mosaddegh, with the latter accusing him of fostering plans for a coup. Meanwhile,

ethnic groups
in southern Iran and labor unrest among oil-field workers put further pressures on the government.

1953 coup

Main article: 1953 Iranian coup d'état
Zahedi (far left) with Richard Nixon at the Shah's palace, Tehran, 13 December 1953

At the behest of the British and American governments, the Iranian military carried out a coup d'état which put an end to Mosaddegh's rule and the era of constitutional monarchy and replaced it by direct rule of the Shah. The newly formed

Operation Ajax
. Zahedi and his followers, financed by the foreign intelligence services, planted newspaper articles in Iranian publications and paid agent provocateurs to start riots. There were such riots in Tehran and other cities. Fearing his arrest, Zahedi went into hiding.

On 15 August, after the first attempted coup d'état failed, the Shah fled first to Baghdad, Iraq, and then to Rome, Italy, after signing two decrees, one dismissing Mosaddegh and the other naming Zahedi to replace him as Prime Minister. Both decrees were in accordance with clause 46 of the Iranian constitution, which stated that the Shah had the power to appoint all Ministers.

Backed by the United Kingdom and the United States, and encouraged by the intelligence agents

Kermit Roosevelt Jr and Donald Wilber, Zahedi staged a second coup on 19 August 1953. Military units arrested Mosaddegh at his home at night. The Shah returned from exile on 22 August 1953.[4] According to the CIA, Zahedi was chosen because he was acceptable to the United States and Britain, had a long record of opposing Mosaddegh, had a significant following, and was willing to take the job.[8]

Premiership and later years

General Zahedi was appointed prime minister in August 1953, and his cabinet was declared on 20 August.

Hussein Ala.[9]

His final post was Ambassador to the United Nations, in Geneva,[citation needed] where he died in 1963.[10]

Personal life

Zahedi with his daughter Homa and his son Ardeshir

Zahedi married Khadijeh Pirnia ol-Moluk, daughter of Hossein Pirnia (titled Mo'tamen al Molk), and maternal granddaughter to Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar. They had a son, Ardeshir, and a daughter, Homa.

Ardeshir was a politician and diplomat and married

Fuad I
.

His daughter

Hamadan Province. She was married to journalist and politician Dariush Homayoon.[11]

According to The New York Times report a day after the 1953 coup, "General Zahedi married twice, but it is not known here whether his second wife is living. By his second wife he had two sons, one of whom lives in Sydney, Australia, while the second son, an air force officer, was killed in a crash."[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    De Jure
    took office on the 13th of August 1953 by the Shah's royal decree, remained unrecognised by the Iranian Government until after the overthrow of Mosaddegh on the 19th.

References

Citations

  1. ^ فضل الله زاهدی
  2. ^ سپهبد فضل الله زاهدی ؛ نخست وزیر نظامی که متخصص سرکوب بود Rouydad (in Persian). Retrieved 11 August 2021
  3. ISBN 978-0805098976
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Stephen Kinzer. (2003). All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, John Wiley and Sons, pp. 102, 142, 195-196
  5. ^ a b c Fitzroy Maclean. (1949). Eastern Approaches. Jonathan Cape, London.
  6. ISBN 978-1-137-55556-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-84511-347-6
    .
  8. ^ "CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup | National Security Archive".
  9. ^
    S2CID 246116954
    .
  10. ISBN 9781134264902
    .
  11. ^ "Tehran Is Calm". The Washington Post. 8 November 1978. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  12. ^ "Royalists Oust Mossadegh; Army Seizes Helm". The New York Times.

Bibliography

  • 'Alí Rizā Awsatí (عليرضا اوسطى), Iran in the past three centuries (Irān dar Se Qarn-e Goz̲ashteh - ايران در سه قرن گذشته), Volumes 1 and 2 (Paktāb Publishing - انتشارات پاکتاب, Tehran, Iran, 2003).
    ISBN 964-93406-5-3
    (Vol. 2).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fazlollah Zahedi.
Military offices
Preceded by
Aboulfazl Sa'datmand
 Chief commander of
Imperial Army

1938–1942 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Haj Ali Razmara
 Chief commander of Imperial Army
1950–1951 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Interior of Iran
1951 		Succeeded by
Hossein Ala'
Preceded by
Abdol-Hossein Meftah
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran

1953 		Succeeded by
Abdollah Entezam
Preceded by Prime Minister of Iran
1953–1955 		Succeeded by
Hossein Ala'
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fazlollah_Zahedi&oldid=1282868090"