Island of Stability (speech)

"Island of Stability" is a phrase that became the namesake for a 1977 speech by American president Jimmy Carter, while he was being hosted by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at the Niavaran Complex in Tehran, Iran.

At a party for New Year's Eve, held in Tehran's Niavaran Complex, he made a speech describing the American stance on Iran's place in the world order, stating: "Iran is an island of stability in one of the most troubled areas of the world";[1][2] he also described Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a popular shah among the Iranian people.

One week later, in January 1978, the article "Iran and Red and Black Colonization" was published in Ettela'at under a pseudonym, targeting Ruhollah Khomeini.

[5] Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi claimed that Carter was aware of the regional instability spurred by sporadic protests against Pahlavi rule in Iran, and so he made the speech for the Shah as a reassurance of American support.

[6] Iranian academic Sadegh Zibakalam has stated that the speech was based on Carter's false impression of Iran's circumstances, and that the American government misjudged the true scope of the Islamic Revolution.