During his ambassadorship in the 1970s, his connections helped grease numerous business deals. Sold vast amounts of oil to the United States, purchased billions of dollars’ worth of American weaponry and technology, and served as a platform from which the United States projected influence across the Middle East. Mr. Zahedi helped bring the two countries into such an intimate relationship that Mr. Kissinger, the secretary of state, came to describe the shah as “that rarest of things in international relations, an unconditional ally.”
