Among the many scholars and historians of Iran and of the Coup especially, Malcolm Byrne, the deputy director of the National Security Archives based in Washington, D.C., has done painstakingly research on the coup of 1953, forcing the Central Intelligence Agency to release documents related to this CIA sponsored event—even if many pages have been deleted or are only available in redacted form. An entire community of historians, Iran specialists, journalists and amateurs have researched and written papers, articles and books on the subject. The result of all this work is that one can differ on the part played by the many actors involved in the events of August 1953 but that no one can credibly deny that the MI6 and the CIA had an important role in this very unfortunate event in the modern history of Iran.
According to Mark Gasiorowski, who has written an authoritative book on the Coup and many articles on the subject, “The three official CIA histories of the coup and many memoirs and academic studies have established clearly that the United States and Britain played crucial roles in the coup. Without US and British involvement, the coup would not have occurred how and when it did.”
In the following interview, Ambassador Zahedi talks frankly and openly about all issues except for the Coup, the role of his father and the involvement of foreign agents and powers in it.
Ardeshir Zahedi was born in Tehran to Fazlollah Zahedi and Khadijeh ol-Moluk. He studied agriculture at Utah State University and returned to Iran, married the Shah’s daughter, Shahnaz, and later joined the diplomatic corps, his last post being the Iranian Ambassador to the United States (1973-1979).
Ever since, he has resided in Montreux, Switzerland. He is the author of several books, among them a two-volume memoir, with a third volume forthcoming He gives regular interviews to Persian speaking broadcasts and is outspoken about foreign intervention in Iran’s affairs.
Ardeshir Zahedi’s papers are now available for researchers at the Hoover Institute.
Below is the text of our interview:
Q. Where were you born and when?
A- Firstly, I thank you for contacting me through my dear old colleague, Dr. Darioush Bayandor, and shall be happy to answer all your questions. Let me also say that when I first saw your name, I did not know that you were the daughter of the late Nosratollah Amini, [I learnt that from Bayandor]. I had known your late father during Iran’s occupation years in the Second World War, when we were, he and I, in the same circle of activists who, like the Young Turks, were looking for ways to act against the occupiers. Not long after the war, I was sent to study in America and our contacts discontinued, but I respected him as a patriot.
Turning now to your question, you must know that everything about me, my early life, my political career before the revolution and life as a private citizen in exile are all in the public domain. I have published the first two volumes of my memoirs and the third volume should come out soon. If you have not done so I hope you take time to read it as you will find my response to many of the questions that must be boiling in your mind even if you started with asking about my date and place of birth: Tehran, 1928.
Q. In a recent interview, you said that the U.S. “Does not have the right to threaten to crush my country,” and added, “If someone from outside wants to return and [push for regime change] –and the money doesn’t come from Arab countries, Israel, and the CIA — if that individual has a plan, he should announce it to the people.”
Can you elaborate on this?
A. Yes indeed, you have correctly quoted me. I do believe that whoever receives money from the Saudis, from Netanyahu or from the CIA cannot represent the Iranian nation and is incapable of rendering any service to Iran. The future of Iran will have to be decided by the Iranians in Iran whom I consider as my sisters and brothers. This is my conviction but as I stressed in my recent New York Times piece, I respect views of others who might disagree. If you have not seen that piece, I shall be happy to send it to you.
Q. You have said in many interviews that the sovereignty of Iran is more important than anything else. Do you think that regime change is viable under any circumstances?
A. Indeed, the sovereignty of Iran must come before all other considerations. No, I don’t believe regime change imposed from outside is viable or desirable. I would never admit that the fate of my country be similar to messy situation in Afghanistan, Iraq or Yemen. Look at Syria’s destruction. To-day I heard on the BBC that desperate Syrian refugees were massively returning from Jordan regretting the times when Syria was a prosperous country. They were thanking god there was still a country to return to.
Our adversaries, who throw in money to promote regime change, do it for malign self-interest and the few Iranians who are in cahoots with them commit treason. It is these same treacherous tendencies by some of our compatriots that are the root-cause of our present misfortunes.
Q. Do you agree with the son of the Shah, Reza Pahlavi?
A. It is a long time I have not seen him and have had no contacts with him.
Q. You have lived to be 92, do you have any regrets in your life and if so what are they?
A. Firstly, you sound optimistic when you refer to my age! You said I was 92 years old whereas I am 90. You must have presumed I would live to reach that age; I take this as good omen. Back to your question, I must have of course committed some errors; who can claim otherwise? Yet I have no regrets about the life I lived. On the contrary, I take pride in the fact that I always acted in line with my principles and convictions regardless of how other would judge me.
Q. Where were you when the Coup of 1953 happened?
A. I dispute the use of the term “coup”; this is a common cliché. If you read my books you will see why I am saying this!
Q. What do you see as the role of your father in the Coup. Your father first allied himself with Dr. Mossadegh. What made him change his mind?
A. To answer your question, I must make a little historical detour, going back to the years 1948 and 1949. Mossadegh and his allies were of the opinion that the elections of the sixteenth Majles were rigged; they demanded that the results of Tehran elections be cancelled. Then Court Minister Abdolhosein Hazhir was assassinated in November 1948 and Mossadegh was accused of involvement; it was said that the firearm that killed Hazhir had been found in Mossadegh’s residence! True or false, a dozen or so of Mossadegh allies like Makki, Baghaei, Haeri-zadeh etc. were detained and Mossadeqgh was under house arrest in Ahmad-Abad.
His Majesty the Shah decreed that the results of the Tehran elections be cancelled and new elections be held. My father was at that point appointed as the chief of the National Police. He assigned young police officers to different polling stations in Tehran district with a mission to ensure the safety of ballot boxes so that they would sound the alarms if the smallest irregularity in the elections would takes place. The result was that Mossadegh and some seven other National Front candidates got elected and Mossadegh formed a 12-member opposition minority faction in Majles which was, in certain ways, the fruit of the diligence by the chief of police, my father General Zahedi.
In my memoirs, (Vol.1, pp. 92-97) I have detailed the reasons why my father chose to resign: It was in the aftermath of Averell Harriman’s trip to Tehran and the turmoil caused by the Tudeh Party and a few people got killed. Mossadegh was upset but my father refused to scapegoat the police chief, [Maj-Gen. Hassan Baghaei], and preferred rather to resign as minister of interior.
In those pages of my memoirs I have also detailed factors that led to an adversarial relationship between my father and Prime-Minister Mossadegh, too long to explain here.
Q. Do you believe that the CIA had any role in the Coup or the MI6 and if so what role did they play?
A. The CIA took credit for a feat in whose end result they had no role. Going by the recently released CIA files, the agency had no prior knowledge about the events that took place on 19 August, (28 Mordad, 1332) and resulted in the overthrow of Mossadegh.
The CIA’s bad faith was later confirmed by Richard Helms who led the agency for seven years. The question you must ask yourself is, why did the agency burn the Iran files if all was straightforward? Eisenhower listened to Kermit Roosevelt’s oral report of the event and called it a “dime novel”. So, if you ask me, all was balderdash dished out by the CIA which needed to show results in Washington, as Bayandor’s book also demonstrated.
Q. Who were the other actors in your opinion?
A. It was all about domestic political forces. The opposition to Mossadegh came from all walks of life: From among the Majles deputies, many of whom were former Mossadegh allies; from within the military and security forces who looked up to my father for leadership; from among journalists of the Abdolrahaman Faramarzi stamp, who wrote a moving editorial in Kayhan following the departure of the Shah on 16 August.
But the decisive impact came from the high ulama, a personality like the Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, or Ayatollah Behbahani and of course Ayatollah Kashani, an anti-colonial icon who had fought the British after the First World War in the Shia uprising in Iraq and who was arrested by the British occupying force in Second World War. Those were the real actors.
Q. As a teenager, living in the Washington area, I, like many of my friends, were kind of offended at your different parties at the Embassy. Do you think they were OK considering the religious fabric of the Iranian society? Some of your parties were lavish and opulent even for our taste!
A. The task of an ambassador is to enhance the interests and the image of his [or her] country and to make its culture and history known in the host country. It is simplistic and utterly wrong to think that receptions at my embassy were mere partying and lavish socializing.
Such heavy weights in Washington as Senate Majority Leader, Mike Mansfield and many other senators like William Symington, Abraham Ribicoff, Jacob Javid, and Robert Byrd as well as top administration officials from both parties were regular guests at those receptions. Already in spring of 1960, during my first tour in Washington, the Congress of Iranian Art and Archeology was organized in New York in cooperation with Arthur Pope, the famous Iranologist; it was inaugurated by Princess Shahnaz. Historian Herbert Lamb wrote a biography of Cyrus the Great from which a documentary film was made. (I note with concern that the terrorist band in Paris, the Mojahedin Khalgh, are using that film as their own instrument of propaganda.)
Later in the seventies, under Nixon, I remember how the Turkish foreign Minister Ihsan Sabri Çaglayangil came to Washington and I invited him together with the Greek ambassador which paved the way for some practical understanding between the two countries over the Cyprus dispute. All these are documented for the fourth volume of my memoirs. One last thing I forgot to mention was the saga of rescuing of some 183 hostages in Washington area in March 1977 of whom 149 were Jewish. They faced threat of beheading by a group of Hanafi Moslem terrorists who had taken them hostage in B’nai B’rith building.
The odyssey is recounted in a 2012 book written by one of the hostages, Paul Green, titled, The Forgotten Hostages. I shall be happy to procure you a copy for you to see that my mission to Washington was not all about fun and partying.
Q. Personally, I am not judging you but only want to understand your thinking. Do you think you made any mistakes in your political life?
A. I think I just responded to this question saying errors in life were inevitable and I might have committed some, but I have no regrets about the fundamentals.
Q. Did you advise the Shah at any time and if so in what capacity?
A. Yes, on certain issue we had discussion, that at times it became hot. As a loyal servant of His Majesty I would give him my honest opinion and best advice. He always carefully listened and when he found a suggestion logical he would accept it. I have quite a number of recollections of some such discussions that I have kept for the fourth volume of my memoirs.
Q. Was he amenable to criticism?
A. He was not hostile to loyal dissent and criticism. A case in point was the letter by Dr. Mozafar Baghaei who in 1975 openly criticized His Majesty’s decision to form the single-party Rastakhiz. I was myself against the Rastakhiz party and had advised against it. Tehran wanted that all government personnel including diplomats abroad sign up to the party. I told my staff in Washington that they were free to refuse to sign up if they so chose.
Q. What is your message to young Iranians and Iranian Americans?
A. My message to the young generation, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, is, don’t let yourselves be deceived by enemies of your country; remain united to preserve the country’s integrity and prevent it from falling to pieces.
I say this out of my profound love and attachment to Iran. Before the Revolution – that is to say in our time – Iran had a population of less than 35 million. Today the population is over 80 million. Of these, 60 per cent are well-schooled and of those 40 per cent are graduates of universities and higher educational institutions. Some 30 million Iranians work in professional field as medical doctors, engineers, lawyers and skilled cadres. Some 20 million among the workforce are women. These are like my sisters and brothers, my children and grandchildren; they are my lifeblood. And these are the future of Iran.
Q. What do you think of Javad Zarif and can you compare the two of you?
A. I have already said this elsewhere. I consider Dr. Zarif to be a competent and erudite personality. People entering the foreign service have to pass an entrance examination and they are well-qualified. Mr. Zarif led a team of professionals who patiently spent several years at the negotiating table in interface with seven powers including the EU to arrive at a nuclear deal. Even if Iran had had to concede some rights under the NPT, the JCPOA, signed in 2015, was in the best interest of Iran. It is regrettable that as a result of policies pursued in Washington that landmark agreement is being undermined. President Trump’s decision to withdraw from this agreement, which had obtained the endorsement of the UN Security Council, was a violation of International Law. To put it mildly, Trump is a wacky president whose foreign policy has alienated even America’s traditional allies.
Q. What is your message to Ayatollah Khamenei and to Trump?
A. I have studied in America and have always had friendly sentiments towards that country. In my career, I came to know nine presidents and directly worked with six among them. Iran’s relations with America, painstakingly built over decades, were unfortunately spoiled and further deteriorated in the last two years as a result of policies pursued by the Trump administration.
But as I wrote in my New York Times piece a few months ago, there is no problem that cannot be straightened out through dialogue and face-to-face negotiations, and I urge both parties to engage in such process.
Q. You gave an interview to Radio Farda back in 2015. You spoke about the nuclear deal and many other important issues. You mention that you were against censorship and even some of the activities of Savak and that in fact you spoke out against these. In that same interview you also mention that if things were all good, we would not have had a revolution, which is very telling coming from the mouth of someone who was one of the most important officials of the Shah’s regime, someone close enough to him both as his ambassador, his confidant, and his ex-son-in-law.
Why didn’t anybody listen? Was the Shah not aware of the torture and executions that were taking place?
A. Your question touches on several issues. What you said about my interview with Radio Farda is quiet correct but let me address your question point by point:
Yes, I feel strongly about the nuclear deal because my involvement with this issue dates back half a century ago. As the then foreign minister I signed the NPT on behalf of Iran on orders from his Majesty and later submitted the instrument of ratification to the Unite Nations. That treaty safeguarded the right of the non-nuclear-weapon-states like Iran by recognizing, in its article III, their “inalienable right” to peaceful uses of atomic energy. In JCPOA Iran had had to make concessions at the expense of its legitimate rights but as I just mentioned this agreement the best that Iran could achieve in order to get rid of the imposed sanctions. Mr. Trump illegally withdrew and imposed even harsher sanctions which have caused further suffering on our people. Curiously, we now see a major lobby in Washington driven by Republicans in the Congress intent on selling to Saudi Arabia not just power plants but reprocessing and enrichment capability.
Another point in your question was censorship and torture. My opposition to censorship and to excesses of Savak is a fact not known to general public. I have cited one example in the second volume of my memoirs (PP.141-2). The Shah must have been aware of the existence of torture but he may have been misled by subordinates into believing that soft interrogation techniques, similar to what was being practiced in the West, were being used. At any rate towards end of 1976 he issued strict orders to the government to stop the practice of torture and mistreatment of detainees.
No one denies that errors were committed, that excesses occurred, and that there was a high volume of corruption. Therefore I repeat: If things were all good, we would not have had a revolution.
Q. You criticize the late Amir Abbas Hoveyda for daily putting on an orchid on his coat, even in the midst of an earthquake, yet I have not heard you criticize the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, which was basically a sham, an extravagant celebration for deposed monarchs, a few dictators and some Western leaders. The ordinary Iranian had nothing to do with this and was not invited to attend this “amazing” celebration. Whose idea was it to have this opulent party?
A. The idea of celebration of Iran’s past glory was in itself noble. The problem was the way it was planned and executed and its exorbitant cost amounting to two-billion dollars which in great part went into the pocket of the regime’s moguls through illicit wheeling and dealing and nepotism.
Q- Iran under the Shah had relatively good relations with Saudi Arabia and even a secretive but civil relationship with Israel.
Today things are quite different. What is your opinion of the government of Israel under Netanyahu and of the Saudi role in destabilizing the Middle East and overtly calling for interference in Iran’s affairs?
A. Yes Iran under the Shah, had good relations with Saudi Arabia but in those days, we dealt with a different breed of leadership under King Faisal. Now we see Jidda sending teams of murderers to kill and dismember a dissident journalist (Jamal Khashoggi) and get away with it thanks to Trump’s White House! What is even worse is the reign of terror in Yemen inflicted by Saudi Arabia with American complicity.
As for Israel, under the Saeed government in the late 1940s, Iran extended de facto recognition to Israel but that country never had accredited diplomatic representation in Tehran. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Iran took a firm stance against the occupation of Arab lands by Israel. His Majesty’s policy was based on full support for the resolution 242 of the UN Security Council which calls for the withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 borders.
Later, as Israel had an informal presence in Tehran, a similar arrangement for PLO under Arafat was envisaged but the Revolution intervened and it did not materialize.
Q. Considering that there are people around Trump, like the hawkish Pompeo and Bolton, who have advocated war against Iran, is war imminent?
A. The people you named are itching for military action against Iran but they must know that such foolishness would become a redux of the Vietnam war. I wrote in my NYT piece, “Bullying rarely succeeds and has never succeeded against Iran.”I added, “ Cats will dream of mice” but NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO CRUSH IRAN.
Cover photo: President Carter with Ambassador Zahedi
