Fazlollah Zahedi

Fazlollah Zahedi (Persian: فضل الله زاهدی) (c. 1897- 2 September [or 1 September] 1963) was an Iranian general and statesman who replaced Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh through a coup d'état, in which he played a major role.

Biography

Early years

Born in Hamedan in 1897, Fazlollah Zahedi was the son of Abol Hassan "Bassir Diwan" Zahedi, a wealthy land owner at the city of Hamedan. During his service at the Imperial Russian-trained Iranian Cossack Brigade, one of his military superiors was Reza Khan, who later became the Iranian monarch. Zahedi was among the officers dispatched to Gilan to put an end to the Jangal movement of Mirza Kuchak Khan. At the age of 23, as a company commander, Zahedi led troops into battle against rebel tribesmen in the northern provinces. Two years later Reza Shah promoted him to the rank of brigadier general.

He was also involved in the overthrow of Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabaee's government in 1920. It was Colonel Zahedi who arrested Sheikh Khaz'al Khan and brought him to Tehran.

Ardeshir Zahedi

Ardeshir Zahedi (Persian: اردشیر زاهدی‎‎), GCVO, (born 16 October 1928) was an important Iranian diplomat during the 1960s and 1970s, serving as the country's foreign minister and its ambassador to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Early life

Born in Tehran on 16 October 1928, he is the son of General Fazlollah Zahedi, who served as prime minister after the fall of Mohammed Mossadegh. Zahedi received a degree in agriculture from Utah State University in 1950, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma. Seven years later, he married the daughter of the Shah of Iran, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi; the marriage ended in divorce in 1964.

Political life

Zahedi served as ambassador to the United States from 1960 to 1962 and to the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1966. Under Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1966 to 1971.

Zahedi again became ambassador to the United States from 1973 until the Iranian Revolution climaxed in January 1979. During his second stint in Washington, he won a reputation for extravagance. In the mid-1970s, Zahedi became known as a companion of the American movie star Elizabeth Taylor, with the two being dubbed "the hottest couple" in Washington D.C., according to the writer Barbara Howar. During the 1977 Hanafi Siege of a federal building in Washington, Zahedi and two other ambassadors from Muslim nations were able to talk the hostage takers into surrendering and releasing 149 hostages.

Mohammad Mosaddegh

Mohammad Mosaddegh or Mossadeq or Mosaddiq (Persian: مُحَمَد مُصَدِق‎‎; IPA: [mohæmˈmæd(-e) mosædˈdeɣ]; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967), was an Iranian politician. He was the democratically electedPrime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953, when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the American Central Intelligence Agency and the British Secret Intelligence Service.

An author, administrator, lawyer, and prominent parliamentarian, his administration introduced a range of progressive social and political reforms such as social security, rent control, and land reforms. His government's most notable policy, however, was the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC/AIOC) (later British Petroleum and BP).

Many Iranians regard Mosaddegh as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history. Mosaddegh was removed from power in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the CIA at the request of MI6, which chose Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Mosaddegh.