Guadalupe is the name of a small island in the East of the Caribbean Sea, where the leaders of the four Western-allied countries took part in an informal gathering on January 5. They discussed various issues in the world, including Iran, where the monarchy was on the verge of collapse, under the Iranian Revolution.
All the research sources which have paid attention to the events in Iran in the second half of 1978 have mentioned the Guadeloupe conference. On the 5th of January, United States President Jimmy Carter, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and German Chancellor Hamlet Schmidt spoke at an informal meeting about their issues of interest, especially the threat of the communist influence. Among these issues, they also considered the events of Iran.
The situation in Iran at the time of the Guadeloupe Conference had reached a point in which the domestic and foreign observers, diplomats, and even the leaders of the Western countries were in no doubt about the downfall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Their concern was with Iran after the exit of Shah.
The leaders of the four Western allies were dissatisfied with the situation which the King of Iran was in and expressed a desire to support the king and his remnants and his kingdom. However, more important than the king, was the protection of their interests in Iran which they did not want to be harmed, regardless of whether the king stays or not.
Some suspect that the Shah’s fate was decided in Guadalupe, including Ashraf Pahlavi, the Shah’s sister, who mentions this issue in her memoirs, or the Shah himself in his book, “Answer to History” says that the leaders of the four Western countries agreed on his departure from Iran.
The fact is that no decision was made about Iran on Guadalupe Island. On one hand, analyzing the news which was published and on the other hand, analyzing the remaining memoirs from that time - such as the memoirs of United States President Jimmy Carter and the memoirs of French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing – shows that they all did not doubt regarding the imminent fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It had even been decided that the Shah would leave Iran some days before the Guadalupe Conference and so this decision had nothing to do with this conference.
William Sullivan writes in his book, “Mission to Iran” that the Shah expressed his desire to leave Iran in late December 1978 and decided to leave Iran for an indefinite period. Although it is said that the leaders of the four Western allies at the Guadalupe Conference hesitated to support the Shah, nonetheless, when we look back at the memoirs of Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, we see that he used to encourage the Shah and his troops to stage a coup at the same time.
The fate of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was not determined at Guadalupe Island, but on the streets and alleys of the Iranian cities and that too, through the slogans and demands of the Iranian people.
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