Ali Amini

Ali Amini in court uniform

Ali Amini after being appointed Prime Minister

Ali Amini ( listen ^{? / I} ; Persian علی امینی; * September 12, 1905 in Tehran ; † December 12, 1992 in Paris ) was Prime Minister of Iran . Ali Amini had been married to Batul Vosough, daughter of Prime Minister Hassan Vosough and niece of Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam , since 1932 .

Life

Early years

Ali Amini was born on September 12, 1905. His grandfather, Amin al-Dowleh, was Prime Minister under Mozaffar al-Din Shah . His mother Fachr al-Dowleh was one of the most influential women in the Qajar family. Reza Shah is said to have said of Ali Amini's mother: "She is the only man the Qajars have ever produced."

Ali attended Dar-ol Fonun High School and was a classmate of Sadegh Hedayat . After high school, he went to France and studied law at the University of Grenoble. Ali Amini was in France when the Qajar dynasty was deposed in front of the Iranian parliament in 1924 and Reza Pahlavi was appointed the new Shah.

After returning to Iran, he worked for Ali-Akbar Davar in the Ministry of Justice. A little later, Amini returned to France to do a doctorate in economics. In 1931 he went back to Iran and this time worked for Davar, now as an employee of the Ministry of Finance.

After the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1942, Ali Amini became Deputy Prime Minister under Ahmad Qavam , the uncle of Amini's wife. In 1951 Amini was a minister in the first Mossadegh cabinet, but lost his post after a cabinet reshuffle.

From 1956 to 1958 Amini was ambassador to the United States.

prime minister

On May 6, 1961, Amini became Prime Minister. The office he had sought for so long was only to be retained for a short time. After just one year, Amini was replaced by Asadollah Alam .

Ali Amini's cabinet was the first to have an official advisor on religious matters. Amini tried to involve the clergy in government work. He even went to Qom personally and met with Khomeini . Khomeini sharply criticized government practices and particularly denounced school policy, which he accused of "producing unbelievers". The discussion did not lead to any convergence of the different points of view.

Amini was the last prime minister who was able to implement his political ideas largely independently of the decisions of Mohammad Reza Shah. Amini tried to strengthen the rights of the prime minister and limit the influence of the regent on his constitutional role as a constitutional monarch. Amini not only sought reconciliation with the clergy. He also wanted to involve politicians from the National Front in his government work in order to create a "government of national reconciliation". He elected Nur al-Din Alamuti , a former senior member of the Communist Party of Iran, as Minister of Justice . He appointed Mohammad Derakscheh , a leading member of the influential teachers' union, as Minister of Education .

One of the most important domestic political decisions of the Amini government was the dismissal of the director of the SAVAK General Teymur Bakhtiar . Bakhtiar had long been suspected of preparing a coup d'etat against the Shah, and as soon as Bakhtiar was released, he began to oppose Mohammad Reza Shah in public.

The replacement of the Amini government was to be triggered by the trip of Mohammad Reza Shah to the USA to see President Kennedy . Kennedy, who was critical of the Shah and urgently called for reforms, said that Amini was "worn out" and that younger workers would have to take over government work in Iran. After Mohammad Reza Shah's return to Iran, a dispute arose between Amini and Mohammad Reza Shah over the amount of the defense budget, in the course of which Amini offered to resign. To his surprise, Mohammad Reza Shah accepted the resignation offer without hesitation. As of July 19, 1962, Ali Amini was no longer Prime Minister of Iran.

Amini, however, hoped to be reappointed to a government office as soon as possible and in the years that followed he kept inviting leading Iranian politicians to his house for political talks. Amini's hopes were not to be fulfilled, however.

In the late 1970s, Amini was briefly once again under discussion of assuming the office of prime minister in order to form a government of national reconciliation. At the age of 70, however, Amini was no longer able to cope with the upcoming changes and was therefore not taken into account.

exile

After the Islamic revolution , Ali Amini left Iran in the firm belief that he would be able to return to his homeland after a short time. It should be a goodbye forever.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

In exile, Amini tried to create an opposition group against the Islamic Republic and to rally the most diverse forces under the banner of “national reconciliation for the liberation of Iran”. But when it became known that Amini was being supported by the CIA with US $ 100,000 a month , and that his credibility as an honest broker of Iran's national interests had been severely damaged, Amini ended his activities as a politician in exile.

Ali Amini died on December 12, 1992 in Paris.

literature

• Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. The men and women who made modern Iran, 1941–1979. Volume 1. Syracus University Press et al., Syracus NY et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8156-0907-0 , pp. 63-71.
• Habib Ladjevardi (Ed.): Memoirs of Ali Amini. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1997, ISBN 0-932885-11-X ( Harvard Iranian oral history series 1), (in Persian).
• 'Alí Rizā Awsatí: (عليرضا اوسطى: (ايران در سه قرن گذشته ( Irān dar Se Qarn-e Goz̲ashteh, Iran in the last three centuries. Paktāb, Tehran 2003, ISBN 964-93406-6-1 (vol. 1 ISBN 964-93406-6-1 ) ISBN 964-93406-5-3 (Vol. 2).

Web links

• Transcript of Amini interview as part of Harvard Iranian Oral History Project directed by Dr. Habib Ladjevardi (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2008, p. 63.
2. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2008, p. 68.
3. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2008, p. 69.