GENERAL Fazlollah Zahedi, who succeeds Mossadegh, is an ambitious
nationalist and a tough soldier. He is no reformer, like Egypt's Naguib
or Syria's Shishekly. Now 56, he has a hard, rocklike face, topped by
straight, greying hair; he stands tall and straight despite severe
arthritis.He was a brigadier general at 25. Twice in his life he has been police
chief of Teheran , a job which attests to his courage
and his capacity for intrigue. During World War II, when the British
and the Russians jointly occupied Iran and deposed the present Shah's
father, Zahedi commanded the Isfahan military district in the South.
The British got wind that Zahedi was masterminding theMelliyun-I-Iran, a clandestine nationalist gang plotting with German
secret agents to foment revolt against the Allied occupiers. On the
side, Zahedi was making a tidy profit by commandeering the region's
wheat stocks and holding on until starving Iranians forked over a top
price.The British sent Cloak & Dagger Agent Fitzroy Maclean to capture Zahedi. Maclean
kidnaped him right under the nose of his own guard and shipped him off
to Palestine for the rest of the war as a prisoner. In Zahedi's bedroom
at the time of his arrest, Maclean itemized the following: a collection
of German automatic weapons; some opium; a large supply of silk
underwear; letters from German parachutist-agents operating in the
hills; an illustrated register of the city's prostitutes.Home again at war's end, Zahedi first held an important regional army
command, then was Minister of the Interior when Mossadegh first took
office. Mossadegh kept him on. The two cooperated to boot out the
British oil company; but Mossadegh's toleration of the outlawedTudeh Reds enraged General Zahedi. On that issue they parted, and became
sworn enemies.Appointed a Senator by the Shah, Zahedi held automatic immunity from
arrest. In October 1952, Mossadegh dissolved the whole Senate,
apparently in order to nab Zahedi. Under arrest, the general was still
a nuisance; he roamed his old haunts at the Interior Ministry and
police headquarters, issuing orders and communiques. After a month of
it, Mossadegh set him free.Last April, when assassins murdered Mossadegh's police chief, the
dragnet immediately went out for Zahedi, who took sanctuary in the
Majlis for six weeks. When Mossadegh dissolved the Majlis, Zahedi fled
secretly to the home of the commander of the Shah's Imperial Guards and
continued to plot against Mossadegh.One night last week, the two enemies met once again. As the general
waited in his office in Teheran's Officers Club to accept Mossadegh's
surrender, the Premier shambled in past lines of soldiers, his
shoulders slumped, his eyes in tears. “Solh ba shoma [Peace be with
you],” said the general. “You see the tables are turned.”
