After World War I

After World War I, all countries expanded their relations with each other and naturally Iranian foreign ministry was also expanded. Till 1943, Iran had grand embassies in only four countries. Iran’s relations with the UK and the US to grand embassy level after the conference of the leaders of the three countries in Tehran and their plenipotentiaries became grand ambassador. In 1945, Iranian and French governments exchanged grand ambassadors.

In 1945, there were some changes in foreign ministry constitution and after India and Pakistan declared independence, Iranian foreign ministry started political relations with them and the countries exchanged grand ambassadors. Iran and Italy also exchanged ambassadors in 1948.

In March 1956, there were again changes in the foreign ministry constitution and new conditions were decided for political affairs and relations and the ministry gradually started to expand. According to the new organizational and recruitment constitution of the ministry, which was approved by the cabinet in 1956, following changes were made in the organizational structure of foreign ministry:

The organizational structure was divided to two sections:

_Central organization including the following sectors:

A-    Ministerial: including Foreign minister, Political and Parliamentary Deputy, Permanent Organizational Deputy, Supreme Political Council, Formalities Office, Legal Advisors, the Minister’s Office and Ministry Inspectors.

B-    Political Sector: Political Administrator, working under the supervision of Political Deputy, was the head of this section and in charge of the following offices:

1. Five political offices (first to fifth) that were in charge of political relations with other countries.

6. The office of information, press and translation.
7. The office of financial affairs.
8. The office of borders and cartography.
9. The office of cultural relations.
10. The office of international organizations.
11. The office of contracts and legal affairs.
12. The office of international co-operations.

C-    Organizational sector: Organizational Administrator, working under the supervision of the Permanent Deputy, was the head of the head of this sector and in charge of organizational offices (accounting, archive, recruitment, budget, library, immigration and passport). According to the new constitution, Permanent Organizational Deputy was considered a full-time deputy.

Foreign ministry had a supreme political council. The council had at least 4 and at most 9 members who were chosen among the ambassadors and plenipotentiaries by the foreign minister. Foreign minister was the chairman of the council and in his absence his Political Deputy was in charge of the council. Duties of the council were determined in its constitution. The ministry also had another council called “The Supreme Council of Recruitment” that its duties and membership conditions were mentioned in its constitution. In 1956, foreign ministry had 408 employees, 189 of which worked inside and 219 of them worked outside the country -New Delhi, Rome, Cairo, Kabul, Karachi, London, Moscow, Vatican, Washington and the UN at that time.

Besides having grand ambassadors in 17 countries, we had embassies headed by plenipotentiaries in 16 other countries. They were in: Ottawa, Stockholm, Brussels, Belgrade, Buenos Aires, Beirut, Prague, Jakarta, Damascus, Brazil, Hague, Madrid, Warsaw, Vienna and we had a secretary general in European office of the UN in Geneva.

Iran had consulates in 13 cities: Izmir, Istanbul, Baghdad, Basra, Bombay, San Francisco, Sulaymaniyah, Karbala, Calcutta, Quetta, New York, Hamburg, Herat, and three other cities. In 1957, Mohammdreza Pahlavi took control of Iranian foreign policy and Dr. Eghbal was to inform the parliament of the decision.