Hossein Fatemi

Hossein Fatemi (; also Romanized as Hoseyn Fātemi; 10 February 1917 – 10 November 1954) was an Iranian scholar. A close associate of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, he proposed nationalization of Iranian oil and gas assets. Initially a journalist, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1951 to 1953. After the 1953 coup d'état toppled the government of Mosaddegh, Fatemi was arrested, tortured,

Early life and education Fatemi was born in Nain on 10 February 1917, the youngest of five. He was educated in his hometown.

Career and activities

After graduation, Fatemi returned to Iran and became instrumental in launching the daily titled Bākhtar (West) in Isfahan. Fatemi was one of 19 Mosaddegh supporters who organized a protest at the Marble Palace in October 1949 after they could not secure a seat in the Parliament in the elections. He replaced Hossein Navab in the post.

Assassination attempt

On 15 February 1952, Fatemi was delivering a formal speech at the grave of the journalist Mohammad Masud who had been assassinated in 1948. There Fatemi became the target of an unsuccessful assassination by Mohammad-Mehdi Abdekhodaei of the Fadayan-e Islam, which also had planned to assassinate Mosaddegh. In the shooting attack, Fatemi suffered serious injuries which sidelined him for the next seven or eight months, and left permanent wounds.

Arrest and execution

In August 1953, Mosaddegh's government was overthrown by a CIA-orchestrated coup d'état. Just before the coup d'état the Western publications, including Newsweek, reported that Fatemi was one of the communists who were dangerous threats for Iran. The other cabinet members who were also regarded as communist threats were Mehdi Azar and Abdol Ali Lofti. Later that day the second coup attempt succeeded. With Mosaddegh arrested, Fatemi went underground, taking shelter in a Tudeh safe house.

Fatemi began to write his memoir, but after 204 days of concealment, he was discovered and arrested on 13 March 1954. He was then tortured and convicted by a military court on 10 October for "treason against the Shah" and sentenced to death. Diminishing his role in Fatemi's execution, Mohammad Reza Shah wrote in his posthumously published book Answer to History that, "I was unable to prevent the execution of Hossein Fatemi, Mossadegh’s Foreign Minister, because he was a communist."

Fatemi was executed by firing squad at Ghasr barracks at 6 am on 10 November 1954 in Tehran,

Personal life Hossein Fatemi married Parivash Satvati on 27 November 1951.

Fatemi and his wife had a son who was seven-month old when Fatemi was executed. Parivash Satvati left Iran following the killing of her husband and settled in the United Kingdom with her son.

Legacy There is an avenue in Tehran named after Fatemi. Mossadegh often quoted Fatemi as the force behind the nationalization of oil from inception to implementation. After the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup, the Shah returned half of oil and gas rights, mainly to US-UK oil companies, with a few percents for French and Italian ones, under a new agreement known as the Oil Consortium. Other countries in the Persian Gulf and North Africa followed the example and took national ownership of oil and gas fields. President Nasser of Egypt was influenced by the earlier example of Fatemi's thesis carried out by Mossadegh when he nationalized the Suez canal.