Word: zahedi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There the beautiful people would gather to devour gossip and caviar, sip Dom Perignon and dance until dawn under the indulgent stewardship of the Shah's trusted adviser and former son-in-law, Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi. Last week this stately pleasure dome had turned into a microcosm of the political chaos back home...
Shortly after Zahedi left Washington to escort the Shah's children to their parents' refuge in Morocco, the acting deputy of the mission, Assad Homayoun, received instructions from his Foreign Min istry in Tehran: remove all por traits of the Shah from the premises. Homayoun duly complied...
Learning of this, six irate military attaches at the mission, led by Ma jor General Mokhateb Rafii, called Zahedi in Morocco and told him what had happened. Equally irate, Zahedi ordered them to put the pictures back in place. Armed with revolvers, the attaches marched into the embassy last Tuesday night, remounted the Shah's por traits, and settled down for a siege...
When Homayoun and other diplomats showed up for work next morning, General Rafii and his mini-army brandished their weapons and declared they were under orders from Zahedi to maintain control of the embassy until his return. After vainly arguing with the attaches that he held the reins of authority in Zahedi's absence, Homayoun hurried over to the State Department. The department's Iran desk officer, Henry R. Precht, was sympathetic but unable to help. Reason: Washington was baffled by the imbroglio and did not want to meddle in a family quarrel...
...army was not yet won over although its loyalty to Mossadeq was feebler than Roosevelt and the generals had dared to hope. For when Zahedi arrived in a tank at Parliament Square a few tense moments passed and then the troops defending Foreign Minister Fatemi threw their caps in the air and declared for the Shah. By mid-afternoon Tehran was under the control of General Zahedi...