Hossein Ala

Hossein Ala

Hossein Ala ( listen ^{? / I} Persian حسین علاء; * December 13, 1881 in Tehran ; † July 13, 1964 in Tehran) was an Iranian politician who held various offices and positions for over 60 years. He was a minister in various cabinets on several occasions and from March to April 1951 and from 1955 to 1957 Prime Minister of Iran.

Life

Hossein Ala was born in 1884. His father Mohammad Ali Khan Ala al-Saltaneh belonged to the political elite under Naser al-Din Shah . At the age of four, the young Hossein accompanied his father to Russia, who was employed there as an Iranian consular officer. The family later moved to London. The father Hossein Alas had meanwhile become the Iranian ambassador in London. Hossein went to school in England and later studied law at the University of London .

The early years

After successfully passing his exams, Hossein Ala began working under his father as an embassy secretary at the Iranian embassy in London. When his father returned to Iran and became foreign minister, he appointed his son to run his office. Hossein Ala remained in the Foreign Ministry until 1915.

In January 1918, Hossein Ala took over his first ministerial post as "Minister for Public Works" with responsibility for all state building projects. In 1919, Ala was a member of the Iranian delegation sent by Ahmad Shah Kajar to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to advance Iranian reparation demands. However, following British pressure, the Iranian delegation was not admitted to the conference as an official delegation and had to return to Iran without having achieved anything.

Back in Iran, Hossein Ala applied for a seat in the Iranian parliament . Ala was elected to the parliament as representative of Tehran and should be one of the four members of parliament who voted against the abolition of the Qajar dynasty and the appointment of Reza Khan as Reza Shah Pahlavi on October 31, 1925 . In a short speech, Ala emphasized that Parliament did not have the right to the proposed constitutional amendment and that the proposal put to the vote in Parliament was against the constitution. The fact that Ala - in contrast to Mohammad Mossadegh , who also voted against the constitutional amendment - later worked closely with Reza Shah and, after his abdication, with Mohammad Reza Shah , shows his greatness and his willingness to put the welfare of the country above personal vanity.

Ambassador and Minister under Reza Shah

In 1927 Hossein Ala was again Minister for Public Works. A little later he was sent to the League of Nations as a representative of Iran . Before the League Council, he brought the complaint against the Anglo-Persian Oil Company , which left Iran only a tiny share of the profits from oil production in Abadan . Reza Schah wanted the mining license , which was still concluded under Mozaffar ad-Din Shah , to be renegotiated, and then achieved better license conditions in 1935 with the conclusion of a new license agreement.

Back in Iran in 1931, Hossein Ala was transferred to head the Iranian National Bank , which was founded on the orders of Reza Shah . Up to this point in time, the British-run Imperial Bank of Persia had printed the Iranian banknotes and thus practically assumed the role of an Iranian national bank.

In addition to his political offices, Hossein Ala was also active in social and cultural areas. He was the founding president of the Iranian Red Cross (Red Lion and Sun) , a member of the organizing committee for the 1000th anniversary of Ferdosi's birthday and twenty years later Hossein Ala was a member of the festival committee of the later so heavily criticized 2500th anniversary of the Iranian monarchy .

In 1931 Hossein Ala was supposed to be sent to London as ambassador. The British government initially did not want to confirm Ala as ambassador to London. The British Foreign Office had not forgotten that Ala had opposed British interests on APOC issues before the League of Nations . After it became clear that Reza Shah von von would not undo Ala's appointment as ambassador, he gave in and confirmed him in 1934. After two years as the officially recognized Iranian ambassador in London, Hossein Ala returned to Iran and became Minister of Economy.

Court Minister under Mohammad Reza Shah

After Reza Shah abdicated in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Shah in 1941, Hossein Ala became Minister of the Court. For the next twenty years, Hossein Ala was to be the right hand man of Mohammad Reza Shah. After the end of World War II , Ala was sent to New York to head an Iranian delegation to the United Nations. Ala informed the Security Council that Soviet troops had not withdrawn from Iran as agreed, but were illegally occupying northern Iran and supporting separatist movements in the course of this occupation. The United Nations Security Council and President Harry S. Truman put General Secretary Joseph Stalin under so much pressure that he gave in and withdrew the Soviet troops from Iran.

Ambassador 1950

Hossein Ala remained as Iranian ambassador to the USA until 1950. On the instructions of Mohammad Reza Shah, he sought US approval for Iran's accession to NATO , but this failed because Iran had the means to make a substantial contribution to it There was no defense alliance.

Prime Minister 1951

Law Nationalization of Iran's Oil Industry, March 15, 1953

After his return to Iran, Hossein Ala became prime minister on March 12, 1951, following the assassination of Haj Ali Razmara by members of the Islamist Fedajin-e Islam . With that Ala took over an office for which he had been intended for a long time. On March 15, parliament passed the law to nationalize the oil industry . On March 20, the Senate, the second chamber of Iran, approved the law and it went into effect with the signature of Mohammad Reza Shah. On April 17th, Parliament expressed confidence in Prime Minister Ala with 77 votes in favor from 84 MPs present. On April 30th, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was founded to take over the production facilities and refineries of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Iran and to continue the operations of the oil industry, which had passed into the hands of the Iranian state.

Ala's term of office was to end just two months later, as his government activities were sabotaged by Mohammad Mossadegh with the support of the MPs of the National Front . When Hossein Ala took office, the Iranian parliament nationalized the British AIOC's oil production and refinery facilities in Abandan. Prime Minister Ala's first task should be to work with a parliamentary committee set up for this purpose to work out the implementing provisions of this law and to negotiate with the British about compensation payments for the nationalized facilities.

Mossadegh drafted a "nine-point plan" and submitted it to parliament for decision without even having spoken to Ala. Hossein Ala got into an argument with Mossadegh about how to proceed, but had to realize that he would not be able to rule against the votes of the MPs of the National Front who supported Mossadegh. After only a few weeks in office, Ala resigned on April 28, making way for the new Prime Minister, Mossadegh. Ala took over the court ministry again until Mossadegh ousted him from this office and replaced him with one of his followers, Abol Qasem Amini.

Prime Minister 1953

After the fall of Mossadegh, Ala resumed the post of court minister under the new Prime Minister Fazlollah Zahedi in December 1953. After his resignation on April 7, 1955, Hossein Ala became Prime Minister for a second time. As soon as he was in office there was an assassination attempt on Ala by the Fedayeen Islam . Ala was only slightly injured in the attack. He had the radical Islamic group, which was also connected to Khomeini , persecuted with all its might and arrested, tried and executed its leader Navab Safavi.

In 1952 Turkey was admitted to NATO, so that the question of Iran joining a Western-backed defense alliance was up for discussion again. In 1955, with the help of the USA, the METO (Middle East Treaty Organization), later renamed CENTO , was founded, of which Iran then became a member. Iraq left this alliance as early as 1959, which considerably weakened its importance.

Court Minister 1955 and 1957–1963

After two years as Prime Minister, Hossein Ala resigned and Manutschehr Eghbal took over the office. Ala returned to his old office as Minister of the Court. In 1959, his most important task would be to negotiate a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in secret negotiations. After the American government heard of these negotiations, American President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote to Mohammad Reza Shah that he would consider the conclusion of such a treaty between Iran and the Soviet Union an unfriendly act. The negotiations were then broken off. In return, the US pledged to support Iran in building modern armed forces.

Hossein Ala's end as court minister came on June 5, 1963. Khomeini had given his speech against the tyrant our time on June 3, 1963 (meaning Mohammad Reza Shah) and was arrested on June 5. Violent demonstrations had broken out and Hossein Ala went to Mohammad Reza Shah that same day to suggest that incumbent Prime Minister Asadollah Alam resign to make way for a government of national reconciliation. Mohammad Reza Shah was quite angry about this request and had Hossein Ala informed by phone the following day that he should no longer “come to the ministry”. After this abrupt, bitter end to many decades of cooperation with the Shah, Ala was nominated as a member of the Senate by Mohammad Reza Shah at the end of his political career.

Private

Ala was married to Rodiye Garagozlou. She was one of the first women of her generation to take off the chador and wear Western clothing. The marriage resulted in two children, a son and a daughter.

Hossein Ala died on July 14, 1964 at the age of 82 in his home in Tehran.

Honors

• 1956: Grand Cross of the Federal Cross of Merit
• 1958: Grand Cross of the Papal Order of Pius
• 1958: Large gold medals on ribbon for services to the Republic of Austria .

literature

• Alireza Avsati: Iran in the last 3 Centuries . Intishārāt-i Pā'kitāb, Tehran 2003, ISBN 964-93406-6-1 (vol. 1), ISBN 964-93406-5-3 (vol. 2) (Persian).
• 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. 37-43.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.iichs.org/index.asp?id=176&doc_cat=7
2. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IBTauris 2000, p. 370.
3. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. UC Press 2009. p. 123.
4. ↑ AAS 51 (1959), n.5, p. 286.
5. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

gallery

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  Cabinet of Prime Minister Hossein Ala