Gholam-Hossein Sadighi

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Dr Gholam Hossein Sadighi was the Minister of Interior in the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. After the CIA-backed coup d'etat overthrew Mossadegh, Sadighi was arrested and later testified in defense of Mossadegh at the latter's trial. Despite the loss of power, Sadighi continued to be politically active. He helped to found the Second National Front in 1960 and, along with other pro-Mossadegh politicians, advocated a democratic system and a Shah that reigns, but does not rule. By 1978, Iran was gripped in mass turmoil and there was a significant danger that Mohammad Reza Shah (who came to the throne in 1941) would be toppled by a mass rebellion, led by the religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (who was then in exile in Paris, France). Because of this threat, the Shah appointed Sadighi as the prime minister in order to rally the moderates behind the government and neutralize the religious opposition. However, the plan collapsed over Sadighi's insistence that the Shah remain in the country and that full executive powers be entrusted in the premier's cabinet, two things that the Shah refused to grant. Because of this, Sadighi left the scene and the Shah instead appointed Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar (one of the leaders of the National Front) as Prime Minister of Iran. On February 11, 1979 the regime was toppled and Sadighi left Iran. He died in 1987.