Shapour Bakhtiar

Shapour Bakhtiar (, ; 26 June 19146 August 1991) was an Iranian politician who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Bakhtiar stated that he favored neither a republican nor a monarchical system, advocating instead for what he called a "progressive democracy."

In 1991, he and his secretary were murdered in his home in Suresnes, France, by agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Early life Bakhtiar was born on 26 June 1914 in Dehkord, now known as Shahr-e Kord, (southwestern Iran) into a family of Iranian tribal nobility, the family of the paramount chieftains of the then powerful Bakhtiari tribe. His father, Mohammad Reza Khan (Sardar-e-Fateh),

Bakhtiar's mother died when he was seven years old. His father was executed by Reza Shah in 1934 while Shapour was studying in Paris as a part of Reza Shah's crackdown on Bakhtiari tribe leaders. He and his cousin, Teymur Bakhtiar, then went to Paris for additional university education at the Faculty of Law. While living in Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem, he fought with the French Resistance against the German occupation.

In his 36 days as premier of Iran, Bakhtiar ordered all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship of newspapers (whose staff had until then been on strike), relaxed martial law, ordered the dissolution of SAVAK (the regime's secret police) and requested for the opposition to give him three months to hold elections for a constituent assembly that would decide the fate of the monarchy and determine the future form of government for Iran. Despite his conciliatory gestures, Khomeini refused to collaborate with Bakhtiar, denouncing the premier as a traitor for siding with the Shah, labeling his government "illegitimate" and "illegal" and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. Bakhtiar has been accused of making mistakes during his premiership, such as allowing Khomeini to re-enter Iran. In the end, he failed to rally even his own former colleagues in the National Front.

His government was overwhelmingly rejected by the masses except for a very small number of pro-Shah loyalists and a handful of moderate pro-democratic elements. The opposition was not willing to compromise. The Shah was forced to leave the country in January 1979; Bakhtiar left Iran again for France in April of the same year.

French exile and series of assassination attempts Shortly after the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, a religious judge and later chairman of the Revolutionary Court, announced to the press that the death sentence had been passed on members of the Pahlavi family and former Shah officials, including Bakhtiar.

In July 1979, Bakhtiar emerged in Paris. From his base in Paris, he led the National Resistance Movement of Iran, which fought the Islamic Republic from within the country. Between 9 and 10 July 1980, Bakhtiar helped organize a coup attempt known as the Nojeh coup plot, prompting the Islamic Republic to issue a death sentence on him. The five-man assassination team with ties to the newly formed Islamic republic, led by Anis Naccache, a Lebanese revolutionary, was captured. They were sent to Tehran.

Trial Two of the assassins escaped to Iran. A third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in Switzerland, along with an alleged accomplice, Zeynalabedin Sarhadi, a great-nephew of Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president of Iran at the time. Both were extradited to France for trial. Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in December 1994, but Sarhadi was acquitted. Rad was paroled on 19 May 2010, after serving 16 years of his sentence. He was received as a hero by Islamic Republic officials upon his return home.

Aftermath The release of Rad had happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime. Both the French and Iranian governments deny the two affairs were linked.

Hours after Bakhtiar's assassination, a British hostage was released from Lebanon, presumably held by Hezbollah, but a French hostage was taken. Although many in the Iranian exile community speculated about official French complicity in Bakhtiar's death, the second kidnapping casts doubt on such theories. The French would seem unlikely to support an operation that included the kidnapping of another French hostage in Lebanon, and there is no apparent connection between the two events. in addition to many articles. His books include Ma Fidélité (in French) and 37 Days after 37 Years (in Persian), his biography (highlighting his political career and his beliefs, up to the Iranian Revolution). His writings are of special interest regarding society and politics in the Pahlavi era and the period of riots and turbulence just before the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Legacy In the words of the historian Abbas Milani: "more than once in the tone of a jeremiad he reminded the nation of the dangers of clerical despotism, and of how the fascism of the mullahs would be darker than any military junta."

Personal life Bakhtiar was first married to a French woman, Madeleine, with whom he had four children: sons Guy and Patrick, and daughters Viviane and France. Guy was a French police intelligence unit officer. Viviane died of a heart attack in Cannes on 22 August 1991 following a series of health problems.

Shortly before his death, Bakhtiar divorced his wife and married a young Iranian woman, Shahintaj. With her, he had a son, Goudard, and a stepdaughter, Manijeh Assad. As of 2001, all three were United States citizens.

Bakhtiar is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.