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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
To help the Zahedi government through a difficult period, the
United States arranged for immediate economic assistance of US$45
million. The Iranian government restored diplomatic relations with
Britain in December 1953, and a new oil agreement was concluded in
the following year
(see Concession Agreements
, ch. 3). The shah,
fearing both Soviet influence and internal opposition, sought to
bolster his regime by edging closer to Britain and the United
States. In 0ctober 1955, Iran joined the Baghdad Pact, which
brought together the "northern tier" countries of Iraq, Turkey, and
Pakistan in an alliance that included Britain, with the United
States serving as a supporter of the pact but not a full member.
(The pact was renamed the Central Treaty Organization--CENTO--after
Iraq's withdrawal in 1958.) In March 1959, Iran signed a bilateral
defense agreement with the United States
(see
Foreign Influences in Weapons, Training, and Support Systems
, ch. 5). In the Cold War
atmosphere, relations with the Soviet Union were correct but not
cordial. The shah visited the Soviet Union in 1956, but Soviet
propaganda attacks and Iran's alliance with the West continued.
Internally, a period of political repression followed the overthrow
of Mossadeq, as the shah concentrated power in his own hands. He
banned or suppressed the Tudeh, the National Front, and other
parties; muzzled the press; and strengthened the secret police,
SAVAK (Sazman-e Ettelaat va Amniyat-e Keshvar--see
Law Enforcement Agencies
, ch. 5). Elections to the Majlis in 1954 and 1956 were
closely controlled. The shah appointed Hosain Ala to replace Zahedi
as prime minister in April 1955 and thereafter named a succession
of prime ministers who were willing to do his bidding.
Attempts at economic development and political reform were
inadequate. Rising oil revenues allowed the government to launch
the Second Development Plan (1955-62) in 1956
(see
The Beginnings of Modernization: The Post-1925 Period
, ch. 3). A number of
large-scale industrial and agricultural projects were initiated,
but economic recovery from the disruptions of the oil
nationalization period was slow. The infusion of oil money led to
rapid inflation and spreading discontent, and strict controls
provided no outlets for political unrest. When martial law, which
had been instituted in August 1953 after the coup, ended in 1957,
the shah ordered two of his senior officials to form a majority
party and a loyal opposition as the basis for a two-party system.
These became known as the Melliyun and the Mardom parties. These
officially sanctioned parties did not satisfy demands for wider
political representation, however. During Majlis elections in 1960,
contested primarily by the Melliyun and the Mardom parties, charges
of widespread fraud could not be suppressed, and the shah was
forced to cancel the elections. Jafar Sharif-Emami, a staunch
loyalist, became prime minister. After renewed and more strictly
controlled elections, the Majlis convened in February 1961. But as
economic conditions worsened and political unrest grew, the
Sharif-Emami government fell in May 1961.
Yielding both to domestic demands for change and to pressure
for reform from President John F. Kennedy's administration, the
shah named Ali Amini, a wealthy landlord and senior civil servant,
as prime minister. Amini was known as an advocate of reform. He
received a mandate from the shah to dissolve parliament and rule
for six months by cabinet decree. Amini loosened controls on the
press, permitted the National Front and other political parties to
resume activity, and ordered the arrest of a number of former
senior officials on charges of corruption. Under Amini, the cabinet
approved the Third Development Plan (1962-68) and undertook a
program to reorganize the civil service. In January 1962, in the
single most important measure of the fourteen-month Amini
government, the cabinet approved a law for land distribution.
The Amini government, however, was beset by numerous problems.
Belt-tightening measures ordered by the prime minister were
necessary, but in the short term they intensified recession and
unemployment. This recession caused discontent in the bazaar and
business communities. In addition, the prime minister acted in an
independent manner, and the shah and senior military and civilian
officials close to the court resented this challenge to royal
authority. Moreover, although enjoying limited freedom of activity
for the first time in many years, the National Front and other
opposition groups pressed the prime minister for elections and
withheld their cooperation. Amini was unable to meet a large budget
deficit; the shah refused to cut the military budget, and the
United States, which had previously supported Amini, refused
further aid. As a result, Amini resigned in July 1962.
He was replaced by Asadollah Alam, one of Mohammad Reza Shah's
close confidants. Building on the credit earned in the countryside
and in urban areas by the land distribution program, the shah in
January 1963 submitted six measures to a national referendum. In
addition to land reform, these measures included profit-sharing for
industrial workers in private sector enterprises, nationalization
of forests and pastureland, sale of government factories to finance
land reform, amendment of the electoral law to give more
representation on supervisory councils to workers and farmers, and
establishment of a Literacy Corps to allow young men to satisfy
their military service requirement by working as village literacy
teachers. The shah described the package as his
White Revolution (see Glossary),
and when the referendum votes were counted, the
government announced a 99-percent majority in favor of the program.
In addition to these other reforms, the shah announced in February
that he was extending the right to vote to women.
These measures earned the government considerable support among
certain sectors of the population, but they did not deal
immediately with sources of unrest. Economic conditions were still
difficult for the poorer classes. Many clerical leaders opposed
land reform and the extension of suffrage to women. These leaders
were also concerned about the extension of government and royal
authority that the reforms implied. In June 1963, Ayatollah Sayyid
Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, a religious leader in Qom, was arrested
after a fiery speech in which he directly attacked the shah. The
arrest sparked three days of the most violent riots the country had
witnessed since the overthrow of Mossadeq a decade earlier. The
shah severely suppressed these riots, and, for the moment, the
government appeared to have triumphed over its opponents.
Data as of December 1987
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