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Amir Khosrow Afshar

Amir Khosrow Afshar
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
27 August 1978 – 5 January 1979
MonarchMohammad Reza Pahlavi
Prime Minister
Preceded byAbbas Ali Khalatbari
Succeeded byAhmad Mirfendereski
Personal details
Born1919 (1919)
Tehran, Qajar Iran
Died1999 (aged 79–80)

Amir Khosrow Afshar (1919–1999; Persian: امیرخسرو افشار قاسملو) was an Iranian diplomat who served as the minister of foreign affairs of Iran during the Pahlavi era from 1978 to 1979.

Biography

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Born in 1919 in Tehran,[1] Afshar was a career diplomat. At the beginning of the 1950s he was the political joint secretary at the foreign ministry.[2][3] He later assumed the posts of the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and deputy foreign minister.[4][5] In 1960, he was the acting minister of foreign affairs.[6]

While serving as the deputy to Ardeshir Zahedi, Iranian foreign minister, Afshar was named as the chief Iranian negotiator on the Bahrain question in 1968.[7][8] Next, he was appointed ambassador of Iran to the Court of St James's on 6 November 1969, succeeding Abbas Aram in the post.[9][10] He held this position until December 1974 when he was replaced by Mohammad Reza Amir Teymour in the post.[11][12]

Afshar also served as the ambassador of Iran to West Germany and to France.[6] He was appointed foreign minister to the cabinet led by Jafar Sharif-Emami on 27 August 1978, replacing Abbas Ali Khalatbari in the post.[13][14] He retained the post when a military government led by Gholam Reza Azhari was formed on 6 November 1978.[13][15] His term ended in January 1979, and Ahmad Mirfendereski replaced him in the post.[1][14]

In the 1960s Afshar was among the Iranian statesmen who favored Iran's close relations with the U.S. and other Western countries in order to secure the survival of the Pahlavi dynasty.[3] He left Iran before the revolution in 1979 and died in 1999.[1]

Honors

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Afshar was the recipient of Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George[12] and a Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "خسرو افشار قاسملو". rasekhoon.net (in Persian).
  2. ^ Hashem Hakimi (13 February 2002). "Fatemi's outburst". The Iranian. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  3. ^ 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): 432. doi:10.1080/14682745.2014.890591. S2CID 153838957.
  4. ^ Roham Alvandi (2012). "Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: the origins of Iranian primacy in the Persian Gulf". Diplomatic History. 36 (2): 337–372. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2011.01025.x.
  5. ^ Thomas L. Hughes (22 April 1969). "Dispute Over the Shatt al-Arab Disturbs Relations Periodically" (Intelligence report). CIA. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Afshar-Ghassemlou, Amir-Khosrow". Harvard University. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  7. ^ Roham Alvandi (2010). "Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and the Bahrain Question, 1968–1970". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 37 (2): 167. doi:10.1080/13530191003794723. S2CID 159639635.
  8. ^ Brandon Friedman (2020). The End of Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf, 1968-1971. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 68. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-56182-6. ISBN 978-3-030-56182-6. S2CID 229220016.
  9. ^ "State Intelligence". The London Gazette. 27 November 1969. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  10. ^ John R. Hinnells (1975). Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 518. ISBN 978-0-7190-0536-7.
  11. ^ "Libel damages for Iran's former ambassador". The Herald. 11 May 1984. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  12. ^ a b "State Intelligence" (PDF). London Gazette. 31 December 1974. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  13. ^ a b "A chronology of the Iranian Revolution (1978-79)". Derkeiler. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  14. ^ a b Luman Ali (2018). British Diplomacy and the Iranian Revolution, 1978-1981. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 156. ISBN 978-3-319-94406-7.
  15. ^ Sepehr Zabir (2012). The Iranian Military in Revolution and War (RLE Iran D). London; New York: Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-136-81270-5.
  16. ^ Nationaal Archief, Inventory 2.02.32, File 376, Registry number 1256
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