August 23, 1953
Shah, Back in Iran, Wildly Acclaimed; Prestige at Peak
By KENNETT LOVE
EHERAN, Iran, Aug. 22--Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi flew here from Baghdad today in a triumphal return to his capital just six days after he had fled the country under threat of dethronement. The first man to greet the Shah was Maj. Gen. Fazollah Zahedi, who assumed the Premiership Wednesday after a bloody uprising by mobs and troops had overthrown the increasingly anti-monarchist Government of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh.
The Shah's private twin-engine plane flew straight in from the west and touched the earth at 11:17 A. M. It taxied briskly to a stop in front of stiff ranks of the Imperial Palace Guard.
General Zahedi half-entered the plane and kissed the Shah's knee, then backed from the door to allow the 34-year-old Emperor to descend. The Shah wore the gold-braided blue gray uniform of the Air Force Commander in Chief that had been specially flown to Baghdad for his return. His eyes were moist and his mouth was set in an effort to control his emotions.
Henderson Protests Reported
The violent overthrow of the Mossadegh Government and the installation of General Zahedi as Premier have been accompanied by a marked shift in the popular attitude toward Americans. In the last months of the Mossadegh regime hostility toward Americans increased steadily. Ambassador Loy W. Henderson was reliably believed to have made a number of protests against anti-American acts.
On Wednesday, however, Americans who encountered Royalist street fighters were greeted with smiles and shouts of "Long live the Shah!"
A shift also appeared in the attitude toward the Russians, who had been completely unmolested, so far as known, in the last few years. An angry crowd, accompanied by a tank, demonstrated outside the Soviet Embassy compound's iron gates Wednesday. After the curfew--moved tonight from 8 to 9 o'clock--street patrols refused to allow holders of curfew passes to go past the Embassy walls.
At the airport ceremony the monarch, who returned to greater prestige than at any time since Dr. Mossadegh became Premier twenty-eight months ago, greeted the entire foreign diplomatic corps. The Shah had an earnest but inaudible exchange with Henderson.
When the ruler, whose hanging had been demanded by Iranian Communists, came to Soviet Ambassador Anatoli I. Lavrentiev, he shook hands without speaking, while the Russian averted his eyes.
At 9 P. M. the Shah and General Zahedi addressed the nation by radio, and many persons declared that the Shah's speech was the first since Dr. Mossadegh came to power in May, 1951, in which the monarch had expressed more than formalities. Without naming names, the Shah made a double-barreled attack on the outlawed Tudeh (Communist) party and Dr. Mossadegh.
Referring to the Tudeh attempt on his life in February, 1949, the Shah declared that the "ominous phantom" of assassination and treachery had always dogged the political life and independence of Iran. He added that "traitors had constantly tried to sidetrack the glorious national struggle from its natural course."
In obvious reference to Dr. Mossadegh, the Shah declared that "the law must be carried out with regard to persons who have violated national institutions and the Constitution, wasted the nation's money and the spilled blood of innocent persons to promote hypocrisy."
He voiced confidence in Premier Zahedi's ability "to repair the damage done to the country."
In his turn, the Premier said the Shah's statement, like "crystal-clear water," quenched thirst and healed the wounds of the last thirty months. He added, "the sad situations that we have inherited will soon be corrected."
Attentions Embarrass Shah
The return of the Shah was marked by demonstrations of loyalty. As soon as his feet were on the ground, high officials and old court retainers rushed forward to kiss his knees and shoes. His progress was impeded by these attentions, which visibly embarrassed him. At one point he was tripped by persons rushing at him and he barely saved himself from falling headlong.
The crowd behind the rails, kept to a few hundred persons by the secrecy surrounding the monarch's arrival time, was led in a cheering demonstration by Shaban Jafari, called the Brainless One, because he rammed a jeep through Dr. Mossadegh's gate and chased him over the wall in his pajamas in the royalist riot Feb. 28th.
Sheep were slaughtered along the road at the moment of the Shah's passing as a thanksgiving sacrifice. A sheep and an ox were slain at the very gate to Saadabad Palace. The animals were beheaded with a single stroke so that the blood flowed in the monarch's path. Flowers were strewn along the route over which there were triumphal arches built of wood and covered with rich Persian carpets.
Soldiers at attention, with bayonets fixed, lined the route, which also was guarded by armored car patrols and tanks. The crowds were kept fifty yards from the road to prevent the possibility of assassination. The Shah was wounded by an assassin four years ago.
The Shah reviewed the palace guard led by Brig. Gen. Nematollah Nasiri. General Nasiri, then a colonel, delivered the Shah's firman (decree) dismissing Dr. Mossadegh as Premier last Saturday night. His arrest by Dr. Mossadegh's household guard and the Government's outcry about an "attempted coup" led to the Shah's departure.
According to the independent evening newspaper, Kayhan, Premier Zahedi met yesterday with Ayatollah Sayed Abolghassem Kashani and told the religious leader that under "no circumstances" would he agree with the present British position on settlement of the dispute over the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. The British demand payment for property and installations and some compensation for future profits under the abrogated oil concession agreement. General Zahedi reportedly said he was unwilling even to pay the British for the property.
The oil question is a subject that stirs the Iranians' nationalistic feelings and is a dangerous matter for a politician to tamper with. However, Iran badly needs the oil revenues that disappeared when a British commercial blockade two years ago barred Iranian oil from world markets.
The new Premier also is said to have declared that his predecessor was subject to prosecution on two counts: "Illegal" acts committed during his term of office and all actions committed after delivery of the Shah's dismissal decree, when his tenure was illegal. The Shah had appointed General Zahedi as premier when he dismissed Dr. Mossadegh.
General Zahedi also was reported to have said that the then-Premier ordered the machine-gunning of citizens during Wednesday's uprising.
General Zahedi was quoted as having said that he would complete elections for the fifty-seven seats in the Majlis (lowers house of Parliament) left vacant when Dr. Mossadegh interrupted the elections last years when the trend appeared against him. Fifty-seven new Deputies, plus twenty-two anti-Mossadegh Deputies who refused to resign last month, would bring the chamber to its former strength of seventy-nine--ten more than the sixty-nine required for a quorum. General Zahedi considers Dr. Mossadegh's dissolution of the Majlis by plebiscite illegal.
Senate May Resume
Twenty-five former members of the Senate dissolved last October considered reconstituting that chamber. The Senate was dissolved largely because of objections by General Zahedi, himself a member, to granting Dr. Mossadegh plenary powers to rule by decree.
An unofficial report on probable Cabinet members circulated in political corridors said Nasrollah Entezam, former president of the United Nations General Assembly, had refused the post of Foreign Minister. General Zahedi has indicated he may fill the post and the Interior Ministry temporarily.
The Premier, at a press conference hurriedly assembled later in the day, declared that Dr. Mossadegh's Foreign Minister, Hossein Fatemi, rumored "torn to pieces" by mobs, probably was alive and in hiding. He declared that the two houses of Parliament would be the court before which Dr. Mossadegh would be tried. The 72-year-old former Premier is quartered in a room a few feet from General Zahedi's office in the Teheran Officers Club. Dr. Mossadegh, who is reported alternately healthy or subject to fainting fits, will be moved to a regular jail tomorrow.