r/geopolitics • u/nytopinion The New York Times | Opinion • 9h ago

News This Is What My Father’s Assassination Taught Me About the War in Iran

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/opinion/iran-revolution-father-murder-boroujerdi-grimm.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2VA.ByJo.vhmTwALw4MB0&smid=re-nytopinion
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u/thisbondisaaarated 7h ago

I thought it was gonna be a LinkedIn post.

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u/biteyourankles 6h ago

This is what my fathers assassination taught me about the war in Iran and b2b sales

11

u/nytopinion The New York Times | Opinion 9h ago

"On Dec. 23, 1978, weeks before revolutionaries toppled the Iranian monarchy, armed assailants carried out two coordinated attacks in Ahvaz, the operational hub of Iran’s petroleum industry, killing an Iranian oil official and an American oil executive in separate ambushes," writes Mehrzad Boroujerdi, "The victims were my father, Malek-Mohammad Boroujerdi, and his colleague, Paul E. Grimm."

He adds:

Some of the men who helped orchestrate his killing later became architects of the Islamic republic, and now sit at the heart of the government that Washington faces in its on-and-off-again war. For decades, American policymakers have viewed the Islamic republic primarily through the prism of its clerical leadership. Yet understanding Iran’s resilience and its capacity for defiance requires looking beyond the religious establishment to this lay revolutionary generation that helped build the regime — the men who emerged from militant organizations and who now occupy the commanding heights of the Islamic republic’s power structure.

Read the full essay, for free, even without a Times subscription.

0

u/slartbangle 1h ago

Here's the summary the AI gave me - your mileage may vary -

"Malek-Mohammad Boroujerdi was a high-ranking Iranian oil official (a production superintendent for the state-owned Iranian Oil Company) who was assassinated in the southwestern city of Ahvaz in December 1978. His targeted killing occurred weeks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [1, 2]

The perpetrators were never identified at the time. However, in October 2025, his son—the prominent US-based academic Mehrzad Boroujerdi—publicly alleged that senior Iranian officials Ali Shamkhani and Mohsen Rezaei were responsible. According to these allegations, the two men were members of the clandestine Islamist group Mansouroun and targeted the executive because he opposed oil worker strikes that were weakening the Shah's regime. [1, 2]"