Government of Manouchehr Eghbal

Cabinet of Pahlavi Iran
Cabinet members on the inauguration day
Date formed4 April 1957 (1957-04-04)
Date dissolvedSeptember 1960 (1960-09)
People and organisations
Head of stateMohammad Reza Pahlavi
Head of governmentManouchehr Eghbal
Total no. of members16
Member partyNationalists' Party
Opposition partyPeople's Party
Opposition leaderAsadollah Alam
History
Advice and consent14 April 1957
17 April 1957
PredecessorGovernment of Hossein Ala'
SuccessorGovernment of Jafar Sharif-Emami

The cabinet led by Prime Minister Manouchehr Eghbal of Iran lasted for three years between April 1957 and September 1960 making it one of the longest tenure cabinets of the Pahlavi rule.[1] The cabinet succeeded the second cabinet of Hossein Ala' who resigned on 3 April 1957.[2][3]

Activities and end

Manouchehr Eghbal's cabinet was inaugurated on 4 April 1957.[2] Eghbal was the head of the Nationalists' Party.[4] The opposition party was People's Party of Asadollah Alam.[4] One of the first activities of the cabinet was to terminate the martial law on 7 April.[5] However, some of the cabinet members were military officers, including Hassan Akhavi and Ahmad Vosuq.[6] Most of the activities of the cabinet were in line with the political agenda of the Shah.[7]

The cabinet program was approved by the Majlis on 14 April receiving 110 favor votes to 0 against votes with 4 abstentions.[2] Three days later on 17 April the cabinet was endorsed by the Senate with 30 favor votes to 0 against votes with 3 abstentions.[2]

The term of the cabinet ended in September 1960 following the general elections held in late August 1960.[5] The Nationalists' Party won the majority at the 200-seat Parliament.[4] However, the Shah annulled the elections.[5] On 6 September Prime Minister Eghbal submitted his resignation to the Shah because of the mass protests over the election results.[4] Another reason for the resignation of Eghbal was his fierce opposition against the Soviet Union due to which he was criticized by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.[8] The next cabinet was formed by Jafar Sharif Emami.[8][9]

Cabinet members

The cabinet was consisted of the following members:[2]

Portfolio Minister Took office Left office Party
Prime Minister4 April 1957September 1960 Nationalists' Party
Deputy Prime Minister4 April 1957September 1960 Military
Minister of Foreign Affairs4 April 19571959 Independent
195931 August 1960 Independent
Minister of National Defense
Ahmad Vosuq
4 April 1957September 1960 Military
Minister of Interior
Fatollah Jalali
4 April 19571958 
19581959 Military
Rahmat Allah Atabaki
1959September 1960 
Minister of Justice
Mohammad Majlisi
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Agriculture4 April 19571959 Military
1959September 1960 
Minister of Labor
Agha Khan Bakhtiar
4 April 19571959 
1959September 1960 Nationalists' Party
Minister of Finance
Ali Asghar Nasir
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Health
Abdul Hussain Raji
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Education
Mahmud Mehran
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Mines and Industries4 April 1957September 1960 Nationalists' Party
Minister of Customs4 April 1957September 1960 Military
Minister of Post
Amir Ghassan Eshraghi
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Commerce
Mustafa Tajadod
4 April 1957September 1960 
Minister of Advisors4 April 1957September 1960 

Reshuffles

Interior Minister Fatollah Jalali was succeeded by an army general Nader Batmanghelidj in 1958.[10] Batmanghelidj's term was very brief and ended in 1959 when Rahmat Allah Atabaki replaced him in the post.[11] Agriculture Minister Hassan Akhavi was removed from office in 1959 due to his opposition to the land reform plans and was replaced by Jamshid Amouzegar in the post.[12] Agha Khan Bakhtiar, labor minister, was replaced by Abdolreza Ansari who was in office until September 1960.[13]

References

  1. ^ Marvin Zonis (1971). Political Elite of Iran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 129. doi:10.1515/9781400868803. ISBN 9781400868803.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Developments of the Quarter: Comment and Chronology". The Middle East Journal. 11 (3): 294–295. Summer 1957. JSTOR 4322924.
  3. ^ "Ala Resigns as Premier. Eghbal, Friend of Shah, Appointed Successor". The New York Times. Tehran. 4 April 1957. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d "Iran: Among the Smugglers". Time. 5 September 1960. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Iran (1905-present)". University of Central Arkansas. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Information Report". Office of the Historian. 14 September 1953. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  7. ^ Hormoz Mehrdad (1980). Political orientations and the style of intergroup leadership interactions: The case of Iranian political parties (PhD thesis). Ohio State University. p. 274. ISBN 979-8-205-08664-6. ProQuest 303067167.
  8. ^ a b Roham Alvandi (2014). "The Shah's détente with Khrushchev: Iran's 1962 missile base pledge to the Soviet Union". Cold War History. 14 (3): 434. doi:10.1080/14682745.2014.890591.
  9. ^ "Jafar Sharif-Emami". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  10. ^ "Ex-Iranian General, Ambassador Dies". Associated Press. Washington DC. 28 April 1998. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  11. ^ 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. 122.
  12. ^ Siavush Randjbar-Daemi (July 2020). "The Tudeh Party of Iran and the peasant question, 1941–53". Middle Eastern Studies. 56 (6): 4. doi:10.1080/00263206.2020.1781627. hdl:10023/24619. S2CID 225591030.
  13. ^ Abdolreza Ansari (2016). The Shah's Iran - Rise and Fall: Conversations with an Insider. London; New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-78673-164-7.

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