Shapour Bakhtiar (Persian: شاپور بختیار, listenⓘ; 26 June 1914 – 6 August 1991) was an Iranian politician who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

[1] In the words of historian Abbas Milani: "more than once in the tone of a jeremiad he reminded the nation of the dangers of clerical despotism, and of how the fascism of the mullahs would be darker than any military junta".

In the mid-1950s he was involved in underground activity against the Shah's regime, calling for the 1954 Majlis elections to be free and fair and attempting to revive the nationalist movement.

He and his colleagues differed from most other government opponents in that they were very moderate, restricting their activity to peaceful protest and calling only for the restoration of democratic rights within the framework of a constitutional monarchy.

At the end of 1978 (as the Shah's power was crumbling), Bakhtiar was chosen to help in the creation of a civilian government to replace the existing military one.

Although that caused him to be expelled from the National Front, he accepted the appointment, as he feared a revolution in which communists and mullahs would take over the country, which he thought would ruin Iran.

[citation needed] In his 36 days as premier of Iran, Bakhtiar ordered all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship of newspapers (whose staff had until then been on strike), relaxed martial law, ordered the dissolution of SAVAK (the regime's secret police) and requested for the opposition to give him three months to hold elections for a constituent assembly that would decide the fate of the monarchy and determine the future form of government for Iran.

Despite the conciliatory gestures, Khomeini refused to collaborate with Bakhtiar, denouncing the premier as a traitor for siding with the Shah, labeling his government "illegitimate" and "illegal" and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy.

[citation needed] His government was overwhelmingly rejected by the masses except for a very small number of pro-Shah loyalists and a handful of moderate pro-democratic elements.

Shortly after the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, a religious judge and later chairman of the Revolutionary Court, announced to the press that the death sentence had been passed on members of the Pahlavi family and former Shah officials, including Bakhtiar.

[4][12] The five-man assassination team with ties to the newly formed Islamic republic led by Anis Naccache, a Lebanese revolutionary, was captured.

Their bodies were not found until at least 36 hours after death, even though Bakhtiar had heavy police protection and his killers had left identity documents with a guard at his house.

A third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in Switzerland,[16] along with an alleged accomplice, Zeynalabedin Sarhadi, a great-nephew of the president of Iran at the time, Hashemi Rafsanjani.

[21][22] The release of Rad had happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime.

Bakhtiar's books include Ma Fidélité (in French)[9] and 37 Days after 37 Years (in Persian),[26] his biography (highlighting his political career and his beliefs, up to the Iranian Revolution).