Title : Emperor Haile Selassie I Visits to Iran and Meetings with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

By UnionJah Observer | July 7th, 2025

Emperor Haile Selassie’s Visits to Iran and Meetings with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran cultivated a close monarchic bond in the 1960s and early 1970s. Their relationship was rooted in mutual Cold War-era interests (both ruling anti‐communist, pro-Western states) and shared ancient “King of Kings” traditions. In 1964 and 1971 Haile Selassie made state visits to Iran, meeting the Shah at grand ceremonies and banquets. These visits – and their reciprocal meetings – are significant milestones in Ethiopia–Iran relations, combining ceremonial diplomacy with trade and strategic talks. Below, we detail each visit and its context, then discuss the broader significance and legacy of this Ethiopia–Iran alliance.

1964 State Visit to Tehran

• Dates & Scope: Emperor Haile Selassie arrived in Tehran in mid-September 1964 for a three-day state visit at the Shah’s invitationwsps.ut.ac.ir. (Iranian sources note he arrived on Monday, 14 Sept 1964, staying into 17 Septwsps.ut.ac.ir.)
• Itinerary & Events: The Emperor was officially welcomed in Tehran and met Shah Pahlavi at the royal palace. They held formal talks described afterward as occurring in a “cordial and fraternal environment”, with “complete understanding and agreement” on all discussed issuesacademia.edu. Cultural and ceremonial events marked the visit: Haile Selassie visited sites like the Fine Arts Office and Golestan Palace Museum in Tehran (as reported in contemporary press), attended military honors, and participated in a state banquet. The final banquet (16 September) was a highlight. Both monarchs delivered speeches: Selassie spoke of unity among the post‑colonial “Global South” and praised Iran’s modernization under the White Revolution, even invoking the Golden Rule (“do unto others…”) to honor the Shahacademia.edu. Pahlavi, in turn, lauded Haile Selassie’s patriotism and anti‑imperial record – referencing both men’s histories resisting foreign invasion – and emphasized their common goals of freedom and developmentacademia.edu.
• Honors & Symbolic Gestures: The visit featured elaborate symbolic exchanges. In a reciprocal honor exchange, Haile Selassie was presented with ceremonial gifts and likely the “Key to the City of Tehran” (a golden city-key gesture later reciprocated when the Shah received the key to Addis Ababa in 1968)academia.edu. Both leaders received ceremonial titles and medals typical of state visits; they toasted each other’s health at formal dinners, and each publicly praised the other’s nation. In his speech, Haile Selassie praised the Shah’s reforms, saying the Shah had “done these great things in a way that reminds one of the stories of the Bible”academia.edu, cementing a sense of mutual respect.
• Meetings & Discussions: Beyond ceremony, the two carried out substantive talks on political and economic cooperation. They agreed on strengthening bilateral ties, culminating in the signing of a trade treaty to expand commerce between Iran and Ethiopiawsps.ut.ac.ir. (Iran had just re-opened its embassy in Addis Ababa in 1964, reflecting renewed engagement.) The negotiations reportedly covered economic aid and technical collaboration, all within the friendly, familial atmosphere noted in press releasesacademia.eduacademia.edu. An Iranian newspaper explicitly hailed the visit as potentially “the key to effective cooperation between Iran and the community of African countries”academia.edu, underlining its wider diplomatic aims in Africa.
• Outcomes: The 1964 visit laid the groundwork for deeper Iran–Ethiopia ties. It led to the trade agreement and reopened diplomatic channels (Iran’s embassy in Addis was reopened soon afteracademia.edu). Symbolically, Haile Selassie used the visit to project Ethiopia as a leader of Africa: in his banquet speech he cited his role in founding the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and urged cooperation among all developing nationsacademia.edu. The visit also cemented personal rapport: at its close the Emperor formally invited the Shah to visit Ethiopia, which Pahlavi acceptedacademia.edu. (This resulted in the Shah’s own state visit to Addis Ababa in June 1968.) In short, the 1964 state visit was both a diplomatic mission and a state spectacle: it advanced concrete trade and political agreements and showcased the two monarchs’ alliance in a pageant of state honors.

1971 2,500‑Year Persian Empire Celebrations (Persepolis)

• Dates & Occasion: Emperor Haile Selassie attended Iran’s grand 2,500‑year celebration of the Persian Empire from 12–16 October 1971en.wikipedia.org. This lavish festival (hosted by Shah Pahlavi) commemorated the founding of the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, and aimed to highlight Iran’s ancient heritage and modern achievementsen.wikipedia.org.
• Venues & Events: The ceremonies were centered at Persepolis (the Achaemenid ceremonial capital) and Pasargadae (Cyrus’s tomb) near Shiraz, with the final day in Tehran (inaugurating the new Azadi Tower)en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. Haile Selassie arrived in Iran as an honored guest of the Shah. The festivities included military parades (with foreign heads of state reviewing troops), historical pageants (the famous “Tent City” at Persepolis), and opulent banquets. At the grand state banquet on 16 October, dozens of monarchs and presidents dined together. Records list “Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia” among the distinguished attendeesen.wikipedia.org. (The guest list notably included “the rulers of two of the three oldest extant monarchies”: the Shah and Haile Selassieen.wikipedia.org.)
• Meetings & Observances: While no public transcripts are widely available, Haile Selassie and the Shah would have met privately and greeted each other at the ceremonies. As in 1964, state honors and exchanges took place: for example, dignitaries received commemorative medals and Haile likely exchanged gifts with Pahlavi. The Emperor attended the homage to Cyrus and witnessed Iran’s national historical pageantry. On the final day in Tehran, Pahlavi unveiled the Shahyad (Azadi) Tower – a symbol of modern Iran – in a ceremony also attended by foreign guestsen.wikipedia.org. The Emperor’s presence underscored Ethiopia’s solidarity with Iran’s cultural heritage; the Pahlavi regime in turn took pride in hosting fellow monarchs.
• Purpose and Outcomes: This visit was largely ceremonial and cultural, celebrating shared ancient heritage and monarchy rather than negotiating new treaties. It reinforced the personal alliance between Haile Selassie and Pahlavi, and highlighted both countries on the world stage. It also had diplomatic overtones: Ethiopia’s participation signaled a vote of confidence in the Shah’s regime and Iran’s developmental narrative. In effect, Haile Selassie’s role was to bear witness to Iran’s history and to project Ethiopia as a peer of the global elite. The outcomes were intangible: the visit further strengthened goodwill, and both countries later minted coins and issued footage commemorating their leaders at the event. (For instance, Iran issued a commemorative medal whose reverse depicted Cyrus’s tomb and the five-ring Olympic symbolen.wikipedia.org.)

Ethiopia–Iran Relations in Context

Throughout the 1960s both countries shared strategic interests in the Cold War and the Non‑Aligned Movement. Scholar Robert Steele notes that “Ethiopia was the first country Iran reached out to in sub-Saharan Africa”, and that Haile Selassie remained the Shah’s “closest ally on the continent” during this periodingentaconnect.com. Both rulers were conservative monarchs facing a tide of revolutionary nationalism in their regions. They cooperated on mutual security concerns (guarding the Red Sea routes and containing communism) and promoted a narrative of anti‑colonial leadership. The Emperor often referenced Ethiopia’s millennia-old lineage (Negusa Negast) parallel to Iran’s imperial legacy; the Shah reciprocally praised Ethiopia’s endurance and freedom from colonial ruleacademia.eduacademia.edu.

Trade and cultural ties also grew: the 1964 visit directly led to a bilateral trade treatywsps.ut.ac.ir. Iranian investment in Ethiopia’s modernization increased, and Ethiopia opened an embassy in Tehran (and vice versa) to facilitate contacts. In 1968 the Shah paid his own state visit to Addis Ababa (June 3–9), the culmination of the reciprocal exchange, which further expanded economic and technical cooperation. In 1971, both nations were prominent founding members of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Group of 77, and their leaders often spoke at the United Nations in support of developing countries’ unity. The 1971 celebration thus had overtones of “south–south” solidarity, as Haile Selassie himself noted at the 1964 banquet, urging “smaller countries” to band togetheracademia.edu.

Legacy and Regional Implications

The meetings between Haile Selassie and the Shah left a mixed legacy. In the short term, the visits cemented a strong Iran–Ethiopia alliance. By some accounts Ethiopia indeed became Tehran’s most important African partner in the 1960singentaconnect.com. Both monarchs used their friendship to bolster their international standing. However, both regimes ultimately fell (Haile Selassie in 1974, the Shah in 1979), and the personal monarchical bond dissolved.

After 1979 Ethiopia’s new Marxist government initially shared Iran’s anti-Western rhetoric, and even supported Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. An Iranian analysis notes that Ethiopia “sided with Iran in the imposed Iran-Iraq war”, which spurred Tehran to seek closer ties in the 1980swsps.ut.ac.ir. Thus, despite ideological shifts, the two countries again found a degree of common ground. (In the 1980s Iran also sought influence in Africa through the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa.) A sticking point later became Eritrea: post-revolutionary Iran backed Eritrean independence, which Ethiopia saw as hostile (a legacy issue for relations).

Following the end of Ethiopia’s civil war in 1991, diplomatic relations were renewed on pragmatic terms. Iran’s new regime declared a priority on Africa, and Ethiopia quickly re-opened its embassy in Tehran in 1992wsps.ut.ac.ir. Since then, Iran and Ethiopia have signed new economic and cultural agreements (for example a Joint Economic Commission), building on the baseline of cooperation established in the Pahlavi–Selassie era.

In sum, the 1964 and 1971 visits symbolized the heyday of Iran–Ethiopia monarchical diplomacy. They demonstrated how two ancient “king of kings” states used personal diplomacy to advance Cold War‑era alliances. The banquets, speeches and exchanged honors remain historical markers of a period when Ethiopia and Iran were firm partners. Though later governments changed course, the memory of those summits has endured in both countries’ diplomatic histories as emblematic of a once-close alliance in the international arenaacademia.eduwsps.ut.ac.ir.

Sources: Contemporary newsreels and memoirs of the visits; scholarly histories of Iran–Ethiopia relations. (E.g. Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Not Without Tearswsps.ut.ac.ir; Robert Steele, “Two Kings of Kings”academia.edu; and the Wikipedia account of the 2,500-year celebrationen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org, which lists Emperor Haile Selassie among its distinguished attendees.)