Sadegh Ghotbzadeh

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Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (in Persian : صادق قطب‌زاده)

(1936 - September 15, 1982) was Iranian Foreign Minister (November 30, 1979–August, 1980) during Iran hostage crisis. He was a supporter of the National Front of Iran and was a close aide of Ayatollah Khomeini when Khomeini was in exile in France. He accompanied Khomeini on his travel back to Iran on February 1, 1979. Right after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Ghotbzadeh was appointed as managing director of National Iranian Radio and Television (NIRT) and tried to overhaul it to be in line with Islamic teachings. This was criticised by a group of Iranian intellectuals and also the Interim Government. He was appointed as Foreign Minister when Abolhassan Banisadr resigned as acting Foreign Minister amid heated disputes on the fate of the American hostages. He was quoted by Agence France Presse saying that he had information that presidential candidate Ronald Reagan was "trying to block a solution" to the hostage crisis. . . . Two friends of Ghotbzadeh who spoke to him frequently during this period said that he insisted repeatedly that the Republicans were in contact with elements in Iran to try to block a hostage release. [1] He later resigned when his diplomatic approach to resolve the crisis ended in a deadlock.

In April 1982 he was arrested along with a group of army officers and clerics (including son-in-law of religious leader Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari), all accused of plotting the assassination of Khomeini and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. He denied the accusations but confirmed the existence of a plot to change the government, then led by Ali Khamenei as President.

It was rumored at the time of Mr. Ghotbzadeh's arrest that a senior White House official (George H. W. Bush) in President Reagan's administration had a conversation with Ghotbzadeh, in which he asked whether the USA would support the coup d'etat in Iran, orchestrated by him. Bush supposedly relayed that conversation to security officials in Iran. Ghotbzadeh was subsequently arrested and executed on September 15, 1982.^{[citation needed]}

Further rumors include the story that Ayatollah Khomeini initially did not want to execute Ghotbzadeh; he was persuaded to do so after hearing a tape of Ghotbzadeh in prison agreeing to pay money and provide contact information of his allies in France in exchange for his freedom. Ghotbzadeh supposedly told this to a fellow prisoner specifically hired to entrap him. The veracity of these rumors is unknown.

Ghotbzadeh attended Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service 1959-1963, but was dismissed before graduating due to his skipping studies and exams to lead protests against the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, including storming a posh party put on by the Iranian Ambassador to the United States, the son-in-law of the Shah.