Honest and brilliant, Ebtehaj was too self-confident, direct and impatient to make a good politician. His enemies used his international standing to claim that he was dependent on foreign powers, while his Iranian pride convinced his foreign detractors that he was xenophobic. But his strong sense of self-confidence also alienated some potential allies. If the country had had a relatively modern political system instead of personal rule, men like Ebtehaj could have served it well, and Iran’s 20th century history would have been very different.
