Gesture of Atonement

Among the 600 Iranians and Americans who filed into Teheran's Majd Mosque last week to attend memorial services for the three Americans killed by desert bandits (TIME, April 8) was one of the best friends the U.S. has in Iran--a slight, scholarly man named Hussein Ala. When the service was over, Hussein Ala proceeded to the palace of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and formally resigned as Prime Minister of Iran.

Ironically. Ala's political head was being offered up as a gesture of atonement to the country he much admires. Even though there was little likelihood that the murders would affect the U.S. aid program in Iran, the incident had humiliated Iranians. And two weeks after the murders. 1,000 Iranian soldiers and gendarmes had not yet succeeded in capturing Bandit Leader Dadshah.

To replace gentle old (74) Hussein Ala, the Shah named Dr. Manouchehr Eghbal. 49-year-old ex-Rector of Teheran University, a top administrator and as pro-Western as his predecessor. Hussein Ala becomes Court Minister to the Shah, the job previously held by Eghbal.

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