Government of Ali Amini

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Government of Ali Amini
Lion and Sun Tricolor Flag.svg
cabinet of Iran
AminiCabinet.jpg
Date formed5 May 1961 (1961-05-05)
Date dissolved19 July 1962 (1962-07-19)
People and organisations
Head of state Mohammad Reza Shah
Head of government Ali Amini
Total no. of members19
Status in legislatureParliament Dissolved
History
Predecessor Sharif-Emami
Successor Alam

Ali Amini was appointed to rule by decree as the Prime Minister of Iran on 5 May 1961, succeeding Jafar Sharif-Emami. [1] His cabinet was approved on 9 May 1961. [2]

Contents

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was not enthusiastic about appointing Ali Amini as prime minister. [3] In addition, the Kennedy administration established a task force, the Iran Task Force, to support the cabinet of Amini which was regarded by the Shah as a move to reduce his power and authority. [3]

Composition

Though Amini was considered a "maverick aristocrat" [4] and "too independent of the personal control of the monarch", [5] appointment of ministers of foreign affairs, war, the interior was made at the behest of the Shah. [6] All of the three portfolios, plus agriculture ministry were left unchanged in the next administration under Asadollah Alam. [7]

Most controversially, Amini gave three ministries to "middle-class reformers who had in the past criticized the political influence of the shah as well as the corrupt practices of the landed families". [4] The three portfolios were justice, agriculture and education ministries. Noureddin Alamouti, an ex-member of the Tudeh Party who later entered the inner circle of Ahmad Qavam was appointed as the justice minister while agriculture ministry went to Hassan Arsanjani who was a radical and another protege of Qavam. Muhammad Derekhshesh who was as a leader of teacher's trade union drew support from both the Tudeh and the National Front, became the education minister. [4] [6] Moreover, he included Gholam-Ali Farivar as the industry minister in his cabinet, who was a former leader of the Iran Party (a party affiliated with the National Front). [8]

Cabinet

Members of Amini's cabinet were as follows: [9]

PortfolioMinisterTookofficeLeftofficePartyRef
Prime Minister 5 May 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Foreign Minister 9 May 19611 April 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
1 April 196219 July 1962  Nonpartisan
Interior Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Military [2]
Agriculture Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Culture Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Commerce Minister (head of ministry)9 May 19611 July 1961  People's Party [10]
1 July 196128 May 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Finance Minister 9 May 196117 February 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
(head of ministry)17 February 196228 May 1962  Nonpartisan [11]
28 May 196219 July 1962  Nonpartisan [12]
Justice Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  People's Party [2]
Labor Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Post & Telegraph Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Nationalists [2]
Public Health Minister 3 June 196119 July 1962  Military [2]
Roads Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  People's Party [2]
Mine & Industry Minister 9 May 196131 December 1961  Nonpartisan [10]
31 December 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
War Minister 9 May 196119 July 1962  Military [2]
Minister without portfolio 9 May 196119 July 1962  Nonpartisan [2]
Minister without portfolio 9 May 196119 July 1962  People's Party [2]
Minister without portfolio 28 May 196219 July 1962  Nonpartisan [12]

References

  1. David Lea (2001). A Political Chronology of the Middle East. London: Europa Publications. p. 52. ISBN   9781857431155.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 S. Steinberg, ed. (2016). "IRAN: Keshvaré Shahanshahiyé Irân". The Statesman's Year-Book 1962: The one-volume Encyclopaedia of all nations. London: Springer. p. 1107. ISBN   9780230270916.
  3. 1 2 Ben Offiler (2021). ""A spectacular irritant": US–Iranian relations during the 1960s and the World's Best Dressed Man". The Historian. 83 (1): 29. doi: 10.1080/00182370.2021.1915731 .
  4. 1 2 3 Ervand Abrahamian (1982), Iran Between Two Revolutions , Princeton University Press, pp. 422–23, ISBN   0-691-10134-5
  5. John H. Lorentz (2010), "AMINI, ALI (1904–1992)", The A to Z of Iran, vol. 209, Scarecrow Press, pp. 26–27, ISBN   978-1461731917
  6. 1 2 P. Avery; William Bayne Fisher; G. R. G. Hambly; Melville, eds. (1990). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press. p. 275. ISBN   9780521200950.
  7. Gholam Reza Afkhami (2008), The Life and Times of the Shah, University of California Press, pp. 226–27, ISBN   978-0-520-25328-5
  8. Shahram Chubin; Sepehr Zabih (1974), Iran Between Two Revolutions, University of California Press, pp. 62–63, ISBN   0-691-10134-5
  9. Michael J. Willcocks (2015). Agent or Client: Who Instigated the White Revolution of the Shah and the People in Iran, 1963 (PhD thesis). University of Manchester. p. 68.
  10. 1 2 Annual Report and Balance Sheet, Central Bank of Iran, 1961, pp. 49, 68
  11. "Ministerial Appointment". Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts (36–37). Central Intelligence Agency: N4. 1962.
  12. 1 2 "Amuzegar Appointed Finance Minister". Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts (104–105). Central Intelligence Agency: N1. 1962.