Jafar Sharif-Emami

Jafar Sharif-Emami (; 17 June 1912 – 16 June 1998) was an Iranian politician who was the prime minister of Iran from 1960 to 1961 and again in 1978. He was a cabinet minister, president of the Senate of Iran, president of the Pahlavi Foundation and the president of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines & Agriculture during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. After high school, Sharif-Emami was sent (along with thirty other young men) to Germany where he studied for eighteen months, returning to Iran in 1930 to work with state railroad organization until the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. He was prime minister from 1960 to 1961, and again in 1978, a few months before the overthrow of the Shah. Sharif-Emami succeeded Jamshid Amouzegar in the post. Sharif-Emami resigned from the office on 5 November 1978 and was replaced by Gholam Reza Azhari in the post. thumb During his short tenure, he undid many of the Shah's plans including the closing of casinos, abandoning the Imperial calendar, abolishing the Rastakhiz Party and allowing all political parties to be active and personally responsible for preventing SAVAK to get involved and preventing the KGB backed clergyman from creating and continuing the 1979 revolution.

Sharif-Emami was also long-time president of the Iranian Senate and chairman of the Pahlavi Foundation. He was one of the close confidants of the Shah.

Sharif-Emami left Iran during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, immigrating to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. He was buried in Valhalla, New York.