Word: amini
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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During the 14 months that Ali Amini was Premier of Iran, he cut inflation, introduced sweeping land reforms, battled corruption. But one thing Amini could not do was balance the budget. Last week, faced by a deficit of at least $85 million, he sorrowfully turned in his resignation to the Shah. Amini at first blamed lack of U.S. aid for his downfall; he has long felt that Washington is more generous to neutralists, particularly Egypt, than to its Iranian ally. Next day Amini withdrew the accusation...
Powerful Foes. Amini had tried to persuade his Cabinet, especially the army, to trim expenditures. The Shah could have used his authority to back the Premier's demands, but did not. While the ministers argued over the budget (two even came to blows), the financial crisis deepened, partly as a result of Amini's realistic reforms. The Treasury lost a major source of revenue after a ban on foreign luxury goods reduced import duties to almost zero; the punctured inflationary balloon resulted in a recession...
Workers opposed Amini because austerity caused rising unemployment; intellectuals and students hated him because he suspended Parliament and ruled by decree; wealthy businessmen and many government officials fought his vigorous anticorruption efforts; large landowners tried to scuttle his land-reform program. Even Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was cool to Amini, because the Premier's family was a member of the ruling dynasty that the Shah's father overthrew in 1921. Faced by such adversaries, the surprise was not that Amini finally resigned, but that he had survived so long...
Powerful Friend. Amini's replacement is the Shah's boyhood buddy, Assadollah Alam, 43, a frequent fixture of Teheran governments, and known for his willingness to carry out the monarch's orders. Educated at a British school in Iran, Alam was Minister of the Interior at 29, early displayed what an American acquaintance describes as a combination of native toughness and Y.M.C.A. dedication...
Last month, after the entire top echelon of the Plan Organization resigned because Justice Ministry gumshoes had brought all work to a standstill by asking "thousands of stupid, irrelevant and vexatious questions," Amini promised to take immediate action on Ebtehaj's case. More important, the Shah himself became a frequent visitor to a Teheran bowling alley owned by Mrs. Ebtehaj, promised to help her husband get out of jail...