Fazlollah Zahedi
Fazlollah Zahedi | |
|---|---|
Minister of Interior | |
| In office 28 April 1951 – 5 August 1951 | |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad Mosaddegh |
| Preceded by | Hossein Ala' |
| Succeeded by | Amirteymour Kalali |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 May 1892 Lieutenant General |
| Awards | |
Fazlollah Zahedi (Persian: فضلالله زاهدی, romanized: Fazlollāh Zāhedi, pronounced [fæzloɫˈɫɒːh zɒːheˈdiː]; 17 May 1892 – 2 September 1963) was an Iranian lieutenant general 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
During his service at the
During Reza Shah's reign, General Zahedi was named military governor of
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 Zahidi'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
After 1945
The 1950s
After retiring from the army, he was named Senator in 1950. Zahedi was appointed minister of interior in
Zahedi finally broke with Mossadegh, with the latter accusing him of fostering plans for a coup. Meanwhile,
1953 coup
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At the behest of the British and American governments, the Iranian military carried out a coup d'état which put an end to Mossadegh's rule and the era of constitutional monarchy and replaced it by direct rule of the Shah. The newly formed
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 Mossadegh 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
Premiership and later years
General Zahedi was appointed prime minister in August 1953, and his cabinet was declared on 20 August.
His final post was Ambassador to the United Nations, in Geneva,[citation needed] where he died in 1963.[10]
Personal life
Zahedi married Khadijeh Pirnia tol-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
His daughter
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
References
Citations
- ^ فضل الله زاهدی
- ^ سپهبد فضل الله زاهدی ؛ نخست وزیر نظامی که متخصص سرکوب بود Rouydad (in Persian). Retrieved 11 August 2021
- ISBN 978-0805098976.
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Fitzroy Maclean. (1949). Eastern Approaches. Jonathan Cape, London.
- ISBN 978-1-137-55556-4.
- ISBN 978-1-84511-347-6.
- ^ "CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup | National Security Archive".
- ^ S2CID 246116954.
- ISBN 9781134264902.
- ^ "Tehran Is Calm". The Washington Post. 8 November 1978. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
- ^ "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).
External links
- Secrets of History: The C.I.A. in Iran -- A special report.; How a Plot Convulsed Iran in '53 (and in '79). The New York Times, 16 April 2000.
- The New York Times article of 20 August 1953
- The Washington Post article of 18 August 2010
- The Washington Times article of 16 August 2010
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| National | |
