Government of Ali Amini

Government of Ali Amini

cabinet of Iran
Date formed5 May 1961 (1961-05-05)
Date dissolved19 July 1962 (1962-07-19)
People and organisations
Head of stateMohammad Reza Shah
Head of governmentAli Amini
Total no. of members19
Status in legislatureParliament Dissolved
History
PredecessorSharif-Emami
SuccessorAlam

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]

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]

Portfolio Minister Took office Left office Party Ref
Prime Minister5 May 196119 July 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
Foreign Minister9 May 19611 April 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
1 April 196219 July 1962 Nonpartisan
Interior Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 Military[2]
Agriculture Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
Culture Minister9 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 Minister9 May 196117 February 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
(head of ministry)17 February 196228 May 1962 Nonpartisan[11]
28 May 196219 July 1962 Nonpartisan[12]
Justice Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 People's Party[2]
Labor Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
Post & Telegraph Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 Nationalists[2]
Public Health Minister3 June 196119 July 1962 Military[2]
Roads Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 People's Party[2]
Mine & Industry Minister9 May 196131 December 1961 Nonpartisan[10]
31 December 196119 July 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
War Minister9 May 196119 July 1962 Military[2]
Minister without portfolio9 May 196119 July 1962 Nonpartisan[2]
Minister without portfolio9 May 196119 July 1962 People's Party[2]
Minister without portfolio28 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Amuzegar Appointed Finance Minister". Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts (104–105). Central Intelligence Agency: N1. 1962.