Zahedi, playboy Iran ambassador to US under shah, dies at 93

Iran's flamboyant ambassador to Washington during the rule of the shah has died

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Ardeshir Zahedi, Iran's flamboyant ambassador to the United States during the rule of the shah who charmed both Hollywood stars and politicians with his lavish parties until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, died on Thursday, Iranian state media reported. He was 93.

Whether seen with Henry Kissinger or entertaining Barbra Streisand, Zahedi cut such a memorable presence across Washington's social scene that one newspaper report referred to him as both the “playboy of the Western world” and the capital's “most-sought-after bachelor.” He was linked romantically to Elizabeth Taylor, the siren of the age.

But as the revolution erupted and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fatally ill with cancer, fled the country, the Iranian Embassy on 3005 Massachusetts Ave. that hosted Zahedi's raucous parties was abandoned and would stand empty for the next 40 years. The revolution swept through the country, installing the Islamic theocracy that governs the nation to this day.

“Iran and America needed and still need each other, and it is in their interest to pursue a new and constructive approach in their relations,” Zahedi wrote in 2020 from Switzerland where he eventually settled. “It is the governments that need to be ready to make sacrifices, to show goodwill, remove artificial barriers, and prove their sincerity and desire to reconcile.”