Regency Council (Iran)

For other uses, see Regency Council.

The Regency Council (Persian: شورای سلطنت, romanized: Šūrā-ye Salṭanat) of the Imperial State of Iran, was a nine-member body formed on 13 January 1979 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to carry out his duties^[1] after he left Iran amidst the Iranian Revolution and served as the symbol of his continued claim on power.^[2]

The council was practically dissolved within days, when its head resigned on 22 January 1979 to meet Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.^[2]

Background

1953 Regency Council

On 28 February 1953, it was reported that in a meeting with Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, the Shah had agreed that during his absence in Iran a regency council consisting of Mosaddegh, Gholamreza Pahlavi (Shah's brother) and Hossein Ala (Minister of Royal Court) should be appointed to act as the regency council.^[3]

1979 Regency Council members

#	Name[4]	Latest Office[4]	Position in the Council
1	Jalaleddin Tehrani	Former Senator	Head
2	Mohammad Ali Varasteh	Former Minister of Finance	Deputy
3	Shapour Bakhtiar	Prime Minister	Member
4	Mohammad Sajjadi	President of the Senate
5	Javad Saeid	Speaker of the Parliament
6	Gen. Abbas Gharabaghi	Chief of the Joint Staff of the Imperial Iranian Army
7	Aligholi Ardalan	Minister of the Royal Court
8	Abdullah Entezam	Former Chairman of National Iranian Oil Company
9	Abdolhossein Ali Abadi	Former Prosecutor-General

Due to the tensions between Jalaleddin Tehrani and Abbas Gharabaghi Tehrani resigned from the post.^[5] He was replaced by Mohammad Ali Varasteh as the head of the council.^[5]

See also

• Council of the Islamic Revolution

References

1. R.W. Apple Jr (14 January 1979). "A Regency Council is Named to Assume Duties of the Shah". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
2. Ronald Koven (23 January 1979). "Head of Iranian Regency Council Resigns in Paris". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
3. "Chronological Summary of Events, 19 February–4 March 1953", Chronology of International Events and Documents, 9 (5), Royal Institute of International Affairs: 148, 1953, JSTOR 40545381
4. Sepehr Zabir (2012). The Iranian Military in Revolution and War (RLE Iran D). CRC Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-1-136-81270-5.
5. Mehrdad Khonsari (June 1995). The National Movement of the Iranian Resistance 1979-1991: The role of a banned opposition movement in international politics (PhD thesis). The London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 111. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021.