IRAN: The Shah's Fight for Survival

• Share

(2 of 5)

The new Premier declared that "the main program of my government is to reestablish an all-embracing peace and security through a campaign against financial and social corruption to an extent that will convince all honest Iranians." Corruption has emerged as one of the most inflammatory issues of the crisis, and the general wasted no time. More than 35 prominent Iranian officials, including Amir Abbas Hoveida, 59, the Shah's Premier from 1965 to 1977, and General Nematullah Nasiri, 71, former head of SAVAK, Iran's dreaded secret police, were arrested and held for trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power. At week's end the government also arrested Karim Sanjabi, leader of the opposition's National Front, and ordered troops to help man the strikebound oilfields.

The Shah announced that a special commission would investigate charges of financial manipulations that have enriched the royal family. Earlier this fall, he ordered his relatives to divest themselves of any financial interest in government enterprises. Since then, 64 members of the royal family—all except the Shah, Empress Farah and their three youngest children—have left the country, presumably taking their riches with them. The Shah said that a second commission would look into the Pahlavi Foundation, a tax-free charitable organization with annual revenues estimated at $500 million, which controls vast industrial and business holdings in the country.

For opponents of the Shah, the political moves were a case of too little and too late—and may well have reinforced their feeling that the monarch was on the ropes. As a high-ranking Iranian officer said, "The more you feed an alligator, the bigger and hungrier it becomes." From his home in exile outside Paris, Ayatullah Khomeini castigated the imposition of military Tule as a "plot that will not work." Said Khomeini: "In one hand, the Shah held a letter of repentance for his crimes, but in the other hand he held a bayonet and a machine gun." National Front Leader Sanjabi had returned from Paris adamantly opposed to any compromise with the Shah. Before his arrest, Sanjabi reiterated the National Front's call for a referendum on the monarchy.

After the military government was installed, the number of violent incidents dropped notably. Army reinforcements moved into Tehran. There are now 100,000 soldiers in the capital alone, supported by more than 200 tanks. Many youthful agitators went underground. With all schools and universities closed and the country's 400,000 teachers still on strike, there was no place for student protesters to congregate. But they remained adamant that the Shah must go, although for widely differing reasons. While many were outspokenly leftist, others adhered to the religious conservatism of their village upbringing; like their Islamic elders, they see their battle against the Shah as the opening round in a jihad (holy war). Asked why his son was not in school, one street-corner peddler retorted: "Why should he be in school instead of fighting for his religion? I would be happy for him to be a martyr for Islam."