MOSADEQ RESIDENCE LISTED AS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Tehran, 11 July (IPS) The residence of Iran’s nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq was registered Tuesday as a national monument of Iran by Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO), the official Iranian news Agency IRNA reported Tuesday.

The house, located at number 2943, Ahmad Abad village, in the suburb of Savojbolagh, west of Tehran, is a simple building constructed in Qajar period, characterised by use of brick, slight decoration, verandas, rectangle columns, simple rooms, wooden doors and windows, as well as sloped roofs in two stories.

Dr. Mosaddeq holding a Ph.D in law from a Swiss university was invited by Moshir ad-Doleh cabinet to fill in the position of the minister of law. He was later appointed as foreign minister and represented Tehran in the parliament under the fifth phase of legislation, whereupon he opposed the assignment of monarchy to Sardar Sepah, who became Reza Shah, stayed away from politics for a while, and returned home.

Following the political events of September 1941, he was once more elected a member of the legislature from Tehran. In this capacity, he struggled to restore the rights of Iranian people with respect to the Irano-British Oil Company (IBOC).

He succeeded in sponsoring the nationalisation of IBOC while acting as Iran's Prime minister under the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, while in the next term of Parliament he was replaced by Qavam-ol-Saltaneh due to his disaccord with the Shah, according to the agency.

However, he was reappointed as Iran's Premier following the national uprising of July 21, 1952 and nationalised the Iranian oil industries afterward, but was arrested in 1953 and convicted to three years of imprisonment as a result of the United States and Britain-sponsored coup arranged with the Iranian Imperial Palace.

Having served his term, Mosaddeq was only released to spend the remaining days of his life under house arrest at his domicile in Ahmad Abad, where he died in 1966.

The place became almost of out reach of ordinary people under both the former and present regimes. The Shah regarded Mossadeq as his most implacable enemy and many of the present clerical leaders consider him as their "bete noire", since his name is the rally point for all the Iranian nationalists.

On his birthday on 1999, Ahmad Abad became the scene of the worse clashes between thousands of students and other Iranians who had gathered there with Law Enforcement Forces and Islamic thugs.

Nevertheless, and despite restrictions many people visit his mausoleum all year round. ENDS MOSADEQ RESIDENCE 11701