Documents reveal defeat of Shah Aides

History researcher, Ghasem Tabrizi says the documents show that the house of Pahlavi prepared their exit from Iran in the beginning days of 1357 (March 1978). Some of them, he said, left the country under the pretext of illness and plastic surgery. "One should ask why this part of history has not been considered as documents are rich in this regard."

IBNA: In a talk with IBNA, Ghasem Tabrizi outlined the present status of historical documents about Mohammad Reza Shah''s escape from Iran.

"A part of the documents have been garnered in the volume 24 of the Islamic Revolution Daily Review by the Historical Documents Center in the form of SAVAK reports," he said.

The study of shah''s escape should start from the date Shapour Bakhtiar took office back in December 27, 1978, he argued. "On January 1, 1979, shah announced that he was leaving Iran to trip to Europe for rest," he added. "This is while documents indicate that as Bakhtiar seized power, the grounds were being prepared for shah''s exit from the country."

Head of the specialized Islamic Revolution section of the Islamic Assembly Library went on to say that the US arrived at the conclusion that it should check on Iran without shah. So Robert Huyser, the then Deputy Commander of US Forces in Europe, was sent to Iran on January 4, 1979.

"Huyser led a group designed to preserve US dominance over Iran by blocking public uprisings and revolts by forming up the Royal Assembly, National Government or even a Coup de tat. Two days after Imam Khomeini entered Iran, Huyser had almost lost hope to keep of the Pahlavi government so he planned the killing of 5000 political activists and revolutionary figures. However, the massacre dropped as people defied the curfew by an order from Imam Khomeini," he added.

He highlighted shah''s escape from Iran on January 16, 1979 and stated that the SAVAK documents and reports show that the house of Pahlavi began to exit the country by the beginning of the Iranian year (March 1978). Parallel with their preparations, the UK had ordered the return of any intelligence documents to its UK embassy in Iran.

He went on to say that the documents left of the final days of Pahlavi dynasty in Iran indicate the confusion of the regime. "Most high profile officials engaged themselves with under-sale of their properties and closing their bank accounts.