Parviz Camran Radji (16 October 1936,

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

– 23 March 2014,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

)Parviz C. Radji's obituary
was an Iranian diplomat and the last ambassador in London, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Life

Radji was the son of an orthopedic surgeon born in 1936 in Tehran. After finishing elementary school in Tehran, Radji attended

Alborz High School Mandegar Alborz High School ( fa, دبیرستان ماندگار البرز) is a college-preparatory high school located in the heart of Tehran, Iran. It is one of the first modern high schools in Asia and the Middle East, named after the Alborz ...

in Tehran and then

The Hill School The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...

in the United States. After graduation from high school he studied economics at

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

. Back in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, he began his career in 1959 at

National Iranian Oil Company The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; fa, شرکت ملّی نفت ایران, Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of ...

as a trainee. *By that time Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, future prime minister, who was the Director of the Administration Department of NIOC appointed Radji as his assistant*. In 1965 Prime Minister

Hassan-Ali Mansur Hasan Ali Mansur ( fa, حسن علی منصور‎; 13 April 1923 – 26 January 1965) was an Iranian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1965. He served during the White Revolution of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and was as ...

was killed in an attack and Hoveyda succeeded him as prime minister. Radji worked four years as private secretary in the office of Hoveyda. Through Hoveyda he met

Princess Ashraf Pahlavi Ashraf ol-Molouk Pahlavi ( fa, اشرف‌الملوک پهلوی, , 26 October 1919 – 7 January 2016) was the twin sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (Persia), and a member of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was considered the "pow ...

, by that time Iran's representative in the

Human Rights Commission of the United Nations The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...

and was chairman of numerous foundations. From 1970 to 1973 Radji worked in the office of Pahlavi at the Iranian United Nations delegation in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 1973 Radji returned to Iran and until 1976 he was special adviser to Hoveyda. From 1976 Radji was sent as Ambassador to

. He served in this position from 4 June 1976 until 26 January 1979 just before the Islamic revolution in Iran. On 16 January 1979, the day Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran, Ahmad Mirfendereski who was the new Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar, called Radji and informed him that he no longer was Iranian ambassador in London. He stayed for few days in his office, packed his belongings and permanently left the Embassy on 26 January 1979. After the revolution, Radji did not return to Iran; instead stayed in the United Kingdom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radji, Parviz C. 1936 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Iranian politicians Iranian diplomats Ambassadors of Iran to the United Kingdom Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United Kingdom The Hill School alumni Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People from Tehran