Shapoor Reporter

Shapoor Reporter or Sir Shapoor Reporter KBE (1 January 1920 - 2005) was a British intelligence agent in Iran who had an important role in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état against the prime minister of the time, Mohammad Mosaddegh.[1]

Biography

Shapoor Reporter was born in Tehran in 1920. His father, Ardeshir Reporter, was an Indian Parsi and a British intelligence officer who came from Mumbai to Tehran in 1893 as the agent of Parsis and developed friendships in the British Legation and began to work for the British.

Educated in Westminster and Kings College, Shapoor Reporter graduated in Political Science and Literature. In 1943 Shapoor Reporter was sent to India to set up the Radio Delhi programs being broadcast in Persian. In 1945 he was assigned to serve in Bahrain, and after one year was sent to China.

In 1947 Shapoor Reporter was sent to Tehran to serve as secretary to the first Indian ambassador in Tehran. During the oil nationalization in Iran, he was accorded as assistant to the U.S. ambassador Loy W. Henderson for three years, during which he had a role in the 1953 military coup. As a reward, he was offered a position in the State Department and U.S. citizenship by the U.S. secretary of state for "his brilliant services to the common cause". Then he was appointed as liaison officer for Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.

Shapoor Reporter became a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1972, shortly after acting as an intermediary in a £100 million arms sale from the United Kingdom to Iran, for which he also received £1 million from the UK Ministry of Defence.[2] In a 1976 bribes trial in London, he was described as "Mr. Fixit" and he was said to have received £1 million commission on one arms deal. Shapoor Reporter died of prostate cancer in Argentina in 2005.

Title and styles

References

  1. ↑ Louis, William Roger (2006). Ends of British imperialism: the scramble for empire, Suez and decolonization : collected essays. I. B. Tauris. p. 775. ISBN 978-1-84511-347-6.
  2. ↑ Phythian, Mark (2000). The politics of British arms sales since 1964: 'to secure our rightful share'. Manchester University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7190-5907-0.
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