Hushang Ansary
| Hushang Ansary | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Minister of Finance | |
|
In office 1 March 1974 – 23 January 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Amir-Abbas Hoveida Jamshid Amouzegar |
| Preceded by | Jamshid Amouzegar |
| Succeeded by | Ali Ardalan |
| Minister of Tourism and Information | |
|
In office 29 December 1971 – 1 March 1974 |
|
| Prime Minister | Amir-Abbas Hoveida |
| Preceded by | Hassan Pakravan |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad Reza Ameli Tehrani |
| Ambassador of Iran to the United States | |
|
In office 25 May 1967 – 1 October 1969 |
|
| Prime Minister | Amir-Abbas Hoveida |
| Preceded by | Khosrow Khosrovani |
| Succeeded by | Amir-Aslan Afshar |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1 January 1926 Ahvaz, Iran |
| Political party | Rastakhiz Party |
| Spouse(s) | Shahla Ansari (m. 1947) |
| Children | Nina Nader |
| Residence | Preston Hollow, Texas, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Tehran |
| Religion | Islam |
Hushang Ansary (in Persian: هوشنگ انصاری, born 1 January 1926) is an Iranian-American diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist. He served for eighteen years in the Iranian government prior to the Iranian Revolution including as Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance and Iran's Ambassador to the United States from 1967-1969. He has been chairman or director of companies both in Iran and in the United States.
Born in Ahvaz, in Iran's Khuzestan Province, Ansary first worked as a newspaper and magazine photographer in Ahvaz, Tehran, and England before moving to Japan in 1954. There he met Abbas Aram, Iran's ambassador to Japan, who soon brought him to the attention of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah asked Ansary to return to Iran and appointed him to several government positions starting in 1961, including Undersecretary of Commerce, ambassador to many African nations and to Pakistan, and Minister of Information.
In 1964, he married Maryam Panahi, a friend of ambassador Aram who had many high-ranking acquaintances in the governments of the United States and Iran. He served as Ambassador to the United States and then as Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance. His accomplishments during this time included assisting the Shah in lending millions of dollars in aid and grants to other countries and the signing of an agreement with U.S. State Secretary Henry Kissinger to build eight nuclear power plants in Iran.
By the 1970s, the CIA considered Ansary to be one of seventeen members of "the Shah's Inner Circle" and he was one of the Shah's top two choices to succeed Amir Abbas Hoveyda as Prime Minister. Ultimately, this appointment went to Jamshid Amouzegar, and Ansary became the leader of the Constructionist wing of the Rastakhiz party, which opposed Amouzegar's Progressive wing. Some of Ansary's supporters have seen Amouzegar's appointment as a poor decision in hindsight. Even his now ex-wife Maryam Panahi, to whom his marriage "came to a bitter end" according to historian Abbas Milani, has said that "not appointing Hushang was one of the shah's two biggest mistakes, leading to the revolution." In November 1977, Ansary became the director of the National Iranian Oil Company, but resigned one year later and moved to the United States, citing health problems.
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