Amir-Abbas Hoveyda - High Level Politics and Arrest

High Level Politics and Arrest

When the Progressive Circle soon became a political entity in the form of the Iran Novin (New Iran) Party in 1963, Hoveida would be thrust into the national scene. Flanking Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansour as his Finance Minister in 1964, the now well seasoned Hoveida would make his mark by acting as the cabinet's intellectual centre. Many observers, both within and without Iran, would take note of Hoveida's prudent behaviour and shrewdness. To many, he embodied the archetypical statesman. Hoveida's positive attributes would again be shrouded by scandal and gossip. During the early months of Mansour's premiership, the government was attacked for ratifying a bill which allowed foreigners extraterritorial rights. More specifically, those who benefited from the law were U.S. military personnel and their dependents. These "capitulation rights" would have a negative impact on the way government at the time was seen by the populace. Because the actions of the government were, by law, reflective of the sitting cabinet at the time, disregarding individual ministerial involvement, Hoveida was also blamed for the bill's implementation even though he was not directly involved in its drafting.

Mansour's assassination on January 21, 1965, by a seventeen-year-old devotee of the Fada’yan-e Islam, would completely alter Hoveida's future. As he personally reported the news to an obviously distraught shah, he was ordered to formulate a cabinet. Hoveida would replace the deceased Mansour as the longest running premier in Iran's modern history. It is important to note, however, that the sense of autonomy seen among past Prime Ministers such as Ali Amini, Haj Ali Razmara, and Mohammad Mosaddegh, has been systematically marginalized by the autocratic Mohammad Reza Shah. In his rather successful campaign at consolidating power, the king maintained his international image as a constitutional monarch, but Hoveida's tenure as PM attests to how this portrayal was not an objective reflection of circumstances. Hoveida's premiership would be the pivot behind his resistance to such powerlessness. Hoveida's popularity increased with the constant character assassination he received by the late Towfigh magazine, Iran's most popular political satire magazine. Hoveida was largely unknown among the population of Iran before Towfigh exposed him and his unpopular agendas. He was caricatured in Towfigh's weekly magazine carrying a cane (caused by a traffic accident in which he was involved), wearing one carnation in his suit jacket pocket, and smoking a pipe. Towfigh magazine referred to him as "The Caned One" and even devoted an entire book dedicated to exposing his flaws as a premier entitled "Assa-Nameh".

On July 19, 1966, Hoveida married Laila Emami in a small ceremony. Only a small number of guests were invited to attend, including the shah, Queen Farah, Laila's parents, Hoveida's mother, and his friend Dr. Manouchehr Shahgholi, and his wife. The marriage would unfortunately end five years later in 1971, but the two would remain friends, often traveling with one another. It was largely rumored that Hoveida was a homosexual, which would also explain his fascination with the French writer André Gide who was openly homosexual.

The first half of Hoveida's premiership is marked by a sense of optimism. As already mentioned, in 1966, Hoveida attempted to allure many elements of the intellectual community, as well as the opposition, into an informal agreement with the regime. Although talks between the two sides eventually broke down, Hoveida never lost sight of what a partnership between the two could have accomplished. His pragmatic approach to politics allowed him to envision an incremental reform process that can be carried out through action. This is contrary to the path assumed by many Iranian intellectuals at the time, which involved quixotic solutions to problems such as electoral corruption and media censorship. Hoveida resumed many of the reform initiatives set out by the Mansour administration. In particular, reform plans that were laid out by Mohammad Reza Shah in the White Revolution. Although a secularist, he would even allocate government revenue to the clerical establishment, a policy that was on the decline ever since Reza Shah's modernization initiatives during the 1920s.

Hoveida's plan to crack down on corruption is a perfect example of how inept the premiership in Iran had gotten. His inability to move forward with his personal mandate eventually turned the overtly optimistic Hoveida into a cynic. After years of political maneuvering, most of his proposed initiatives were stonewalled by bureaucratic obstacles. During the 1970s, the now veteran Prime Minister became nonchalant when it came to following through with his own convictions. His earlier aggression towards the dysfunctions of an obtrusive system slowly turned into feigned support. Publicly, Hoveida assumed the notion that the regime in its current state would eventually reform on its own, and that political liberalization was only a small issue in the grand scheme of modernization. In private, Hoveida often lamented over Iran's conditions, admitting to insufficiencies of the state and his own political impotence. The powerlessness of the premier's office was coupled with intricate internal rivalries. Hoveida had an intensely rough relationship with the likes of Asadollah Alam and Ardeshir Zahedi, son of the famed participant in the 1953 coup against Mossadegh, General Fazlollah Zahedi.

On March 2, 1975, the shah dissolved the Iran Novin Party and its opposition elements in creating a single party system headed by the Rastakhiz (Resurgence/Resurrection) Party. In relation to Hoveida, it is believed that the shah was being threatened by the growing influence wielded by party officials, Hoveida being the most notable. The growth of an independent apparatus was contrary to Mohammad Reza Shah's contrivance involving the consolidation of all power. Hoveida's inability to garner any type of power base in government allowed him to concentrate much of his energy on developing the Iran Novin Party. The networks he had slowly developed over the years came to trouble the monarch. Although Hoveida would be coerced into relinquishing his position as PM, he accepted a temporary intermediary role as secretary general of Rastakhiz before a new Prime Minister can be appointed.

Hoveida would eventually serve as Minister of Court within Jamshid Amouzegar's administration in 1977. With this role, he would come to discover the pervasiveness of internal corruption, once concealed by Asadollah Alam and the team he had surrounded himself with. Due to several reasons, one being Ardeshir Zahedi's relentless attacks on him, Hoveida resigned on September 9, 1978. At this point, the growing tide of revolution was becoming discernible, giving Hoveida ample opportunity to leave the country before revolutionary forces could have had a chance to overthrow the 2500 year old monarchy. Aside from persistent efforts by family and friends to leave the country as quickly as possible, the shah himself proposed Hoveida with an ambassadorial position to Belgium. His refusal to leave the country can be judged as being a result of naïveté or blind optimism, but Hoveida's decision can also be assessed from alternate angles. For one, he did not want to abandon his mother who was incapable of traveling at the time. On a more personal level, Hoveida came to the conclusion that after years of self-exile, he would do all he could to remain in Iran. With all these points of rationale being considered, Hoveida actually came to believe that revolutionary fervour was capable of being contained and that everything would eventually straighten out, allowing the country to resume its present course.

In an effort to slow down the momentum of the revolution, the shah was advised by many of his surrounding cohorts to arrest Hoveida, using him as a scapegoat for the past-ills of the crumbling regime. On November 7, 1978, Hoveida was arrested by order of the monarch. He would be held under house arrest in an upper-Tehran residence often affiliated with SAVAK activity. Once Mohammad Reza Shah fled the country, the SAVAK agents assigned with the task of guarding Hoveida, absconded from their posts, leaving Hoveida open to arrest by revolutionary forces.