QOTBZADEH, SADEQ (IRAN)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06935723
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2022
• Case Number: F-2021-01734
• Publication Date: January 9, 1980

Approved for Release: 2022/07/15 C06935723
Sadeq QOTRZADEH
(Phonetic: GAWTBzaDEH)
Member, Revolutionary Council;
Minister of Foreign Affairs
On 28 November 1979 the
Revolutionary Council appointed
one of its members, Sadeq Qotbza-
deh, as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He was chosen to replace Abol
Hasan Bani-Sadr because Bani-Sadr
seemed to be working for some sort
of compromise with the United
States on the hostage situation at the
US Embassy. Qotbzadeh has fol-
lowed a hard line with this country.
He
IRAN
[had a 25-year career as a student activist and leader and as a
revolutionary. His political base lies in his long association with
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Should the ayatollah's star wane,
Qotbzadeh might try to shift his allegiance to other religious figures in
his pursuit of power.
Khomeini probably uses Qotbzadeh (and others) on the RC as a
window on the world�a source of information and an instrument of
policy. To carry out these functions. Cootbzadeh must remain in contact
with the RC
Should
circumstances suggest the need to replace him as Foreign Minister,
Khomeini would remove him as suddenly as he did his predecessors. In
late December 1979 Qotbzadeh announced his candidacy for the
presidency in the 25 January 1980 election.
Professional Revolutionary
Born into a middle-class merchant family,
Qothzacteti is the youngest of three brothers (neither of his brothers
holds office in the regime). As a youth he was the most religious
member of his family. He did have a brief flirtation with Marxism, but
he returned, at least outwardly, to a militantly Islamic orientation.
Qotbzadeh received some of his early education in Tehran and some in
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Canada. Along the way, he became a member of the anti-Shah National
Front and a follower of Prime Minister (1951-53) Mohammad Mosadeq.
After Mosadeq's fall, Qotbzadeh was imprisoned for antigovernment
activities. When he was released in 1959, he came to the United States
to continue his studies and to agitate against the Shah. During 1958-59
he was a student at Howard University in Washington, but he left after
he failed to achieve a leadership position in the student organization.
Along with Ebrahim Yazdi (Foreign Minister from May to early
November 1979) and Mostafa Chamran (now Minister of National
Defense), he founded the Islamic Students Association of the United
States.
Qotbzadeh may have attended the University of California at
Berkeley for a short time; he eventually studied languages at
Georgetown University in Washington. While attending Georgetown,
he had frequent hostile verbal exchanges with Ardeshir Zahedi, then the
Shah's son-in-law and Ambassador to the United States. In 1961 the
Iranian Government revoked Qotbzadeh's passport. Expelled from
Georgetown for missing too many classes�because of illness, he says�
he was deported from this country in 1964, an action he blames on the
Shah.
During 1967-
68 he was a student at Notre Dame Junior College in Nelson, British
Columbia. He left with a B.A. degree]
Qotbzadeh subsequently traveled in the Middle East and Africa,
establishing contacts with a spectrum of groups he believed would be
helpful to his cause, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.
He established residence in France in 1969 and attended the University
of Paris from time to time during the early 1970s. He became active in
the international Confederation of Iranian Students but was expelled
because of his differences with its leftist elements. Once or twice a year,
he went to Najaf, Iraq, to visit the then exiled Khomeini. Qotbzadeh
occupied a leadership position in the Union of Iranian Students in
France until he began to play a more active role in the group around
Khomeini. During his stay in France, he competed strenuously with
Abol Bani-Sadr for preeminence among Iranians in Europe. When
Khomeini left Iraq in October 1978 to go to France, Qotbzadeh
accompanied him. He subsequently became one of Khomeini's
spokesmen and principal aides.
Qotbzadeh returned to Iran with the ayatollah on 1 February 1979
and was given the key position of director of the National Iranian Radio
and Television Organization (NIRT0). He forced leftist staff members
to follow the propaganda themes of the Islamic revolution and removed
over a hundred who balked. He irritated many Iranians by banning all
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entertainment programs and substituting political lectures and speeches,
patriotic songs and inspirational poetry. In early December 1979 a
committee replaced Qotbzadeh at NIRTO, ostensibly because he was
too busy with other duties to continue in the job.
Personal Data
The Foreign Minister likes to wear fashionable suits, silk ties and
loaf en An enthusiastic
talker, he speaks English, French and a little Arabic. His full surname is
Qotbzadeh-Esfahani, but he does not use that form.
9 January 1980
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