Shapour Bakhtiar

Shapour Bakhtiar
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Name	Shapour Bakhtiar
Native name	شاپور بختیار
Birth date	26 June 1914
Birth place	Fasa, Fars, Qajar Iran
Death date	6 August 1991
Death place	Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Nationality	Iranian
Alma mater	École Centrale Paris, University of Tehran
Occupation	Politician, lawyer
Known for	Last Prime Minister of Pahlavi Iran, opposition leader to Islamic Republic of Iran

Shapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian politician, lawyer, and statesman who served as the last prime minister under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the final months of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A member of the National Front and a former dissident against both Reza Shah Pahlavi‑era repression and later policies of the Pahlavi dynasty, he accepted a royal appointment in an attempt to prevent the takeover by forces loyal to Ruhollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After the collapse of the monarchy he organized opposition in exile, clashed with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and was assassinated in France in 1991.

Early life and education

Born in Fasa in Fars during the Qajar dynasty, Bakhtiar came from a family of landowners with ancestry tracing to tribal and local elites of Persia. He studied at the University of Tehran where he read law and became involved with figures from the Free Officers Organization and the National Front, associating with politicians such as Mohammad Mossadegh, Ali Shariati, and contemporaries from Tehran University circles. Later he pursued postgraduate engineering studies at École Centrale Paris where he encountered European politicians and jurists from France, fostering contacts with members of the Union for the New Republic (UNR), Rassemblement du peuple français, and international legal scholars.

Political career in Iran

Bakhtiar entered public life as a civil servant and legal practitioner, holding posts in the Ministry of Interior (Iran), municipal administration in Tehran, and serving as a provincial governor and cabinet minister under the Pahlavi dynasty. He became a prominent member of the National Front, collaborating with activists who resisted the 1953 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh and involved MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency. His critiques targeted figures such as Amir Abbas Hoveyda and policies of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and he engaged with dissidents aligned with Fada'iyan-e Islam opponents and liberal intellectuals like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad and Sadegh Hedayat.

Prime Ministership and policies

Appointed prime minister by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in January 1979, Bakhtiar formed a short-lived government aimed at implementing liberal reforms, guaranteeing civil liberties, and negotiating a settlement with leaders including Ruhollah Khomeini, representatives of the Islamic Republican Party, and international mediators from France and the U.S. State Department. His cabinet included technocrats and moderates who sought to contain revolutionary forces such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and street militias tied to Ansar-e Hezbollah and the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Faced with mass demonstrations, defections by Imperial Iranian Army commanders, and diplomatic shifts involving Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States policies, his attempts at constitutional reform and amnesty were overwhelmed by the momentum of Khomeini’s return and the collapse of royal authority.

Opposition, exile, and assassination plot

Following the fall of the monarchy and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Bakhtiar fled into exile and settled in France, where he led the Resistance Movement of Iran and allied with groups such as the National Front in exile, émigré monarchists, and opponents like Abdol Karim Amini and other activists to coordinate political, broadcasting, and clandestine efforts aimed at overthrowing the new regime. He engaged with European politicians in Paris, media outlets including BBC Persian and Voice of America, and legal advocates to expose alleged human rights abuses by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and security organs like the MOIS. Subject to assassination attempts attributed by investigators to operatives linked to Ministry of Intelligence and National Security (Iran), he survived earlier plots until 1991 when he was assassinated in Suresnes, prompting investigations by French police and international condemnation from bodies including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Personal life and legacy

Bakhtiar’s personal life intersected with political exile communities in France and the United Kingdom, maintaining networks with Iranian intellectuals such as Abdolhossein Noushin and Ezzatollah Sahabi, diaspora activists in Los Angeles and London, and allied European supporters including members of the French National Assembly and journalists from Le Monde and The New York Times. His assassination reverberated through diplomatic channels involving France–Iran relations, legal proceedings invoking Interpol notices, and memorials attended by émigré politicians from the National Council of Resistance of Iran and royalist circles. Scholarly assessments in works by historians of Iranian Revolution studies compare his brief premiership with contemporaneous figures like Mohammad Mossadegh, Abdolhassan Banisadr, and commentators from Harvard University and Cambridge University. His legacy is debated among monarchists, republicans, secularists, and Islamists; he is remembered as a liberal nationalist who attempted negotiation with revolutionary forces and as a symbol of the Iranian diaspora’s opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Category:Iranian politicians Category:Assassinated Iranian people