Abbas Aram
{{Short description|Iranian diplomat (1906–1985)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = File:Abbas Aram.JPG
| imagesize = 175px
| caption =
| office = Minister of Foreign Affairs
| monarch = Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
| term_start1 = 1959
| term_end1 = 1960
| monarch1 = Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
| primeminister1 = {{ubl|Manouchehr Eghbal|Ali Amini}}
| predecessor =
| successor = Ardeshir Zahedi
| term_start = 19 July 1962
| term_end = 1966
| primeminister = {{ubl|Asadollah Alam|Hassan Ali Mansur|Amir-Abbas Hoveyda}}
| birth_name = Gholam Abbas Aram{{cite news|title=Iran to file new protests|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtxYAAAAIBAJ&dq=abbas+aram&pg=PA1&article_id=5225,2904677|access-date=5 November 2023|work=Ludington Daily News|agency=Associated Press|issue=114|date=19 March 1946|location=Washington, D.C.|page=1}}
| birth_date = 1906{{cite web|title=Iran Rulers effective 1694 to Date|url=http://www.peymanmeli.org/Rulers.asp|work=Peymanmeli|access-date=9 July 2023}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death year and age|1985|1906}}
| death_place =
| restingplace = Behesht-e Zahra, Tehran
| nationality = Iranian
| children =
}}
Abbas Aram (1906–1985) was an Iranian diplomat and served as foreign minister for two terms between 1959 and 1960 and between 1962 and 1966. In addition, he was ambassador to Japan، Iraq، United Kingdom and Iran's first ambassador to China.
Career
Aram was the first secretary at the embassy of Iran in the United States in the 1940s.{{cite news|title=Iranian Ambassador May Give Uno Case|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19460319&id=PaAgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RWgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4194,5584599|access-date=29 November 2013|newspaper=The Lewiston Daily Sun|date=19 March 1946|location=Washington, DC}} As of 1950 he was serving as the chargé d'affaires there.{{cite journal|title=Developments of the Quarter: Comment and Chronology|journal=The Middle East Journal|date=July 1950|volume=4|issue=3|jstor=4322192|page=333}} He was the Iranian ambassador to Japan and then, to Iraq during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah.{{cite web|title=The John F. Kennedy Security Files|work=University Publications of America|access-date=29 November 2013|url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/13152_jfknsfmiddleeast.pdf}}
Aram was twice appointed as foreign minister in the late 1950s and 1960s.{{cite book|author=Lokman I. Meho|title=The Kurdish Question in U.S. Foreign Policy: A Documentary Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BD7imPDFto0C&pg=PA463|page=463|year=2004|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0-313-31435-3|location=Westport, CT; London}} His first term was brief, from 1959 to 1960.{{cite web|work=Peymanmeli|title=Minister of Foreign Affairs|url=http://www.peymanmeli.org/Rulers.asp|access-date=29 November 2013}} Aram attempted to revive the diplomatic relations with Iraq during the premiership of Abdul-Karim Qasim.{{cite book|author=Arash Reisinezhad|title=The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia|year=2019|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan
|page=84|location=Cham|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-89947-3|isbn=978-3-319-89947-3|s2cid=187523435|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89947-3}} However, his attempts were not fruitful due to the suspicious approach of the SAVAK, Iran's security organization, towards Qasim.
Aram was appointed to the post for a second term on 19 July 1962{{cite web|title=List of Persons|access-date=17 April 2022
|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v18/persons#p_AA11|publisher=Office of the Historian}} and served in the first cabinet led by Asadollah Alam.{{cite journal|title=Chronology June 16, 1962-September 15, 1962|journal=The Middle East Journal|volume=16|issue=4| year=1962|jstor=4323525|page=486}} On 30 April and 1 May 1963 Aram represented Iran at the eleventh session of CENTO ministerial council in Karachi, Pakistan.{{cite journal|title=Central Treaty Organization|journal=International Organization
|year=1964|volume=18|issue=1|pages=197–198|doi=10.1017/S0020818300000515|s2cid=249407993}} Another significant event during his second term as minister of foreign affairs was the Iran–Soviet Memorandum concerning the sovereign rights of two countries in the Caspian Sea. This agreement is known as Aram-Pegov agreement (Pegov refers to Nikolai Pegov, Soviet signatory of the document and ambassador to Iran),{{cite book|editor1=Michael P. Croissant|editor2=Bülent Aras|title=Oil and Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Region
|year=1999|publisher=Praeger|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3lyCPmitLkQC&pg=PA170|chapter=Iran: Geopolitical challenge and the Caspian region|page=170|author=Nader Entassari|location=Westport, CT, London|isbn=978-0-275-96395-8}} and was signed on 15 September 1962.{{cite journal|pages=432,441|author=Roham Alvandi|title=The Shah's détente with Khrushchev: Iran's 1962 missile base pledge to the Soviet Union|journal=Cold War History|year=2014|issue=3|volume=14|doi=10.1080/14682745.2014.890591
|s2cid=153838957}}
Aram was also named as the minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet led by Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur on 7 March 1964.{{cite journal|title=Chronology December 16, 1963 - March 15, 1964|journal=The Middle East Journal|year=1964
|volume=18|issue=2|page=218|jstor=4323704}} He remained in office until 1966 when Ardeshir Zahedi replaced him in the post.{{cite book|author=Roham Alvandi|title=Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War|publisher=Oxford University Press
|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-061068-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJLSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PP4|page=4|location=Oxford; New York}}
Next Aram served as Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom.{{cite journal|title=Middle East 1969-1972|journal=FRUS|volume=XXIV
|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/FRUSxxiv.pdf}} He was appointed to the post in February 1967, replacing Ardeshir Zahedi.{{cite news|title=State Intelligence|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44249/pages/1713|access-date=29 November 2013
|newspaper=The London Gazette|issue=44249|date=14 February 1967}} Aram's tenure ended in November 1969 when Amir Khosrow Afshar was appointed Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom.{{cite news|title=State Intelligence|date=27 November 1969|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44974/pages/11495|access-date=29 November 2013|newspaper=The London Gazette|issue=44974}} In December 1973, Aram was appointed Iranian ambassador to China, becoming the first Iranian diplomat served in the post.{{cite book|author=John W. Garver|title=China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CPMoRVo3fSwC&pg=PA308|year=2006|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-80121-6|page=308|location=Seattle, WA; London}}
=Views=
In July 1960 and in a press conference, Mohammad Reza Shah expressed his positive attitude towards Israel which was harshly criticised by the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.{{cite thesis|author=Sohrab C. Sobhani|title=The pragmatic entente: Israeli-Iranian relations, 1948-1988|location=Georgetown University|page=80|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303710655|year=1989
|degree=PhD|id={{ProQuest|303710655}}}} Following the incident both states expelled each other's ambassadors, and the Foreign Minister Aram stated that Gamal Abdel Nasser was a "light-headed pharaoh who is ruling by bloodshed". In the 1960s Aram was among the Iranian statesmen who favoured Iran's close relations with the U.S. and other Western countries in order to secure the survival of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Later years and death
Aram was arrested following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, but was later released. He died in 1985 and was buried in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran.{{cite news|title=گوشه ای از خاطرات عباس آرام|date=1 June 2010|url=http://bukharamag.com/1389.03.853.html
|work=Bukhara|language=fa}}
External links
{{commons category}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iran|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aram, Abbas}}
Category:20th-century Iranian diplomats
Category:Ambassadors of Iran to China
Category:Ambassadors of Iran to Iraq
Category:Ambassadors of Iran to Japan
Category:Ambassadors of Iran to the United Kingdom
Category:Burials at Behesht-e Zahra
Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Iran
Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Category:Iran Novin Party politicians
Category:Rastakhiz Party politicians