text: Fazlollah Zahedi (, pronounced ; 17 May 1892 – 2 September 1963) was an Iranian lieutenant general, statesman, and military strongman who replaced the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh through a coup d'état supported by the United States and the United Kingdom.
  Early life
  Early years
  Born in Hamedan on 17 May 1892, Fazlollah Zahedi was the son of Abol Hassan "Bassir Diwan" Zahedi, a wealthy landowner at the city of Hamedan. He was a descendant of the Sufi mystics Sheikh Zahed Gilani and Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili, the eponym of the Safavid dynasty, and through his mother, Djavaher Khanom, he traced his descent to the dynastic ruler Karim Khan Zand. Through him, Zahedi was a distant relative of Mohammad Mossadegh.