Iranian Prime Minister resigns

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 8

Iranian Prime Minister resigns

! NZPA-Reuter Tehran The Iranian Prime Minister, Jamshid Amduzegar has resigned and has been replaced by the Senate President, Jaafar Sharif-Emami, an official announcement said. In his first statement, Mr Sharif-Emami declared that his Government would bow to religious principles and will respect religious society and the Islamic rules. Thirty minutes after Mr Amouzegar presented his resignation, the Shah received Mr Sharif-Emami and his 19-man Cabinet of political moderates and technocrats. After formally introducing his Cabinet, which included three of the Ministers under Mr Amouzegar, Mr SharifEmami urged the Iranian national forces to mobilise to save the country from collapse. Mr Sharif-Emami came to power during a dangerous rift between the reformist monarch and Muslim traditionalists. More than 500 people have died in eight months of violence, including 377 who perished in the Abadan theatre fire blamed by the Government on Islamic-Marxist terrorists.

Mt Sharif-Emami, >s a veteran at the tbp of Iran’s political hierarchy who was Prime Minister once before from August 1960 to May 1961 in a stop-gap role between Parliaments. Mr Sharif-Emami. who is

68, is widely respected as one of Iran’s elder Statesmen. He has been President of the Senate for 15 years. His other main job has been to head the Pahlavi Foundation which administers the Shah’s estates for charitable purposes. Balding and bespectacled, Mr Sharif-Emami is an engineer by training and served in organisations responsible for roads, railways, irrigation, and communications in a 47-year career of Government service.

He has been Minister of Roads and was Minister of Industries and Mines from 1957 to 1960. He has travelled widely in Europe and Asia, and speaks German, French, and English. As Senate President, his most recent overseas trip was to Turkey last month. Mr Sharif-Emami is regarded as a loyal public servant whose main mission will be to take the heat out of Iran’s present political unrest before the free Parliamentary elections which the Shah has promised for next year.

He has a reputation as a devout Muslim. His name “Emami” shows that his fami'y was related to Imams, saints Of the Shia Islamic clergy. He is reputed to have good links with Muslim leaders, some of whom have been in the forefront of antiGovernment agitation in, Iran this year.