Who Paid for Khomeini's Airplane Rental?

On the fortieth anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's arrival on February 1, 1979, many Twitter users discussed "Haj Karim Dashtmalchi," a person who, according to these tweets, rented and insured the Air France plane carrying Ayatollah Khomeini and had previously purchased Khomeini's house in Paris. Karim Dashtmalchi, a member of the National Front, was executed on July 13, 1981, for charges such as inciting unrest and financially supporting anti-revolutionary groups. There are multiple accounts regarding this matter. The Parsineh website reported in April 2011 that "Alaa Mir Mohammad Sadeghi" paid the money: "When Bakhtiar threatened to close the airports and shoot down any plane, Air France refused to allocate a plane for the Imam's arrival in Tehran. The generous Isfahani [Alaa Mir Mohammad Sadeghi] entered Air France's office in Paris and, with a check said to be two million dollars, insured the plane and its passengers all at once." Alaa Mir Mohammad Sadeghi stated in a June 2015 interview that he had told Ayatollah Beheshti that he was willing to give all his assets for Khomeini's plane to land in Tehran. When asked by a reporter about the amount of the check he issued for the plane's insurance, he laughed and said, "Many people did a lot for the revolution, and my contribution was just slightly above zero." His statement implies that he issued the check and emphasized that they did not inform Khomeini about it: "This was not something significant that we needed to inform him about." This claim comes amid statements from Asadollah Asgaroladi, another businessman close to the Coalition, who, in a February 2013 interview with Mashregh News, said, "The insurance amount for the Imam's plane was 500,000 dollars and was not done by one person, but rather by a group of individuals from the markets of Tehran, Tabriz, Mashhad, and Isfahan." Parsineh, however, published a similar account about Karim Dashtmalchi in February 2016 and included a photo of him. Nonetheless, Ardeshir Houshizadeh, a close friend of Sadegh Qotbzadeh, stated in an interview published on January 14, 2018, that the account regarding Karim Dashtmalchi is false: "Dashtmalchi had no idea. Khomeini or those with him in France said that anyone boarding the plane should pay for themselves. Those who boarded that plane paid for the flight. How, I do not know. Apparently, Sadegh Tabatabai collected the money. I later asked Qotbzadeh about this, and he said that everyone who boarded the plane was charged for the flight. Khomeini was not willing for the French or anyone else to pay for the plane." The Islamic Revolution in Exile website, managed by Abolhassan Banisadr, reported on July 14, 2012, about Dashtmalchi's execution, stating that he "bought a house for Khomeini in the suburbs of Paris (Versailles)" but did not mention the airplane rental and insurance matter. The third account comes from Christian Bourget, a French lawyer who was a friend of Sadegh Qotbzadeh, who stated in a February 2018 interview with Liberation that "Qotbzadeh managed to contact Air France to rent a plane. He started collecting money and one day came back with a bag full of tickets." According to this lawyer, many Iranians "wanted the honor of returning with the Imam and were willing to pay a lot for it. The plane rental was arranged in the blink of an eye." Carol Jerome, Qotbzadeh's girlfriend, also recounted a similar story in her book "The Man in the Mirror," which discusses Qotbzadeh's life. Qotbzadeh, who seems to be a central figure in this matter, spoke with the Ayandegan newspaper on February 1, 1979, about the rental of the Air France plane: "Arrangements were made with Air France yesterday [January 31]." Houshizadeh mentioned that "Mr. [Abbas] Amirantajam and Mr. Sabaghian went and rented the plane." He stated that the plane was rented from Air France's office in Tehran. This account is also mentioned in Carol Jerome's book: "In Tehran, representatives of the National Front of Iran met with Air France managers on Shah Reza Street and made an agreement." The office of Abbas Amirantajam, which was later confiscated, was above Air France's office in Tehran. According to Carol Jerome, the representatives of the National Front "used the abundant financial resources that were in the hands of the clergy and also from their own headquarters to pay the airline. They left the rest to Sadegh in Paris." According to Bourget's account, as the political situation worsened, Air France's managers requested 500,000 francs equivalent to 100,000 dollars. At this stage, French Foreign Ministry officials intended to cooperate and guarantee the payment, but Air France wanted cash: "Sadegh hurried off and returned a few hours later with a heavy, shiny plastic bag... Inside the bag was the 500,000 francs requested by the airline. Sadegh had set the financial network of Iranian opponents in motion and started contacting comrades in Germany. They contacted banks in Zurich and Hamburg that had accounts for the opponents and arranged for the cash payment through their branches in Paris to Sadegh." She wrote that Sadegh initially gave a check to Air France and then deposited the money into a bank from which the check was drawn. Carol Jerome also noted that the amount paid for the tickets was 2,400 francs. Ibrahim Yazdi, who was among Khomeini's companions on that flight, stated in an interview published in April 1999 in the magazine "Iran Farda" that "the merchants in Paris collectively gave 400,000 tomans [about 60,000 dollars] and rented an Air France plane." Another report about the matter was published by the Washington Post on January 25, 1979. This report stated that the cost of chartering this flight was 175,000 dollars, which at the exchange rate was equivalent to 1,225,000 tomans. The report also mentioned that the cost for journalists' travel was stated to be 500 or 600 dollars. Sadegh Qotbzadeh told the Washington Post that Khomeini's supporters in Iran participated in paying for the plane. Rasoul Sadr-Aalami, a journalist who was present on that flight, also stated in a June 2014 interview with ISNA that "due to the uncertainty of the flight, all of us [journalists] had paid for the round-trip ticket." Habibollah Asgaroladi also mentioned Sadegh Qotbzadeh's role in a conversation published after his death on October 27, 2014, on Mashregh News, stating: "Mr. Qotbzadeh was responsible for getting the plane. He went and rented three planes from Air France. Shahid Iraghi came and told me: 'Do you know what has happened? Qotbzadeh has gone and rented three planes, but Imam said one is enough.'" Thus, based on the commonalities in the narratives, it is clear that Sadegh Qotbzadeh played a central role in renting the plane and collecting the money, and the claims of individuals like Mir Mohammad Sadeghi are not accurate, and the rental and insurance amount was not two million dollars. However, Ibrahim Yazdi emphasized in his interview with Iran Farda magazine that this money was provided by national-religious merchants, some of whom faced injustice from the revolution. He did not specifically mention Karim Dashtmalchi, but based on this reference, it can be inferred that Karim Dashtmalchi may have contributed to part of the rental cost of this flight, which is cited as being between 60,000 to 175,000 dollars, but the narrative that he paid the entire rental and insurance cost of the plane does not seem accurate.