Ardeshir Zahedi, Irrepressible Iranian Diplomat, Dies at 93

Ardeshir Zahedi, who as Iran's ambassador to the United States hosted some of Washington's most lavish, star-studded parties and derived his cachet in part from his closeness to the shah, died on Thursday in exile at his villa in the lakeside town of Montreux, near Lausanne, Switzerland. He was 93.

Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency announced the death without elaboration.

Mr. Zahedi had been hospitalized for five months with Covid, John Ghazvinian, a historian of US-Iran relations at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. He said he had received an email from Mr. Zahedi eight months ago in which Mr. Zahedi told him about his Covid and said that he had also fallen and broken a leg and had several bouts of pneumonia.

While serving twice as Iran's ambassador to the United States, in the early 1960s and through most of the '70s, the flamboyant Mr. Zahedi was best known for his extravagant entertaining in one of Washington's most ostentatiously appointed embassies, a four-story, 46 -room Georgian-style brick mansion with 14 fireplaces and terraced gardens.

“Mr. Zahedi's parties featured bands, fresh orchids, 24-karat game prizes, caviar and Champagne, with guests like Henry A. Kissinger, Andy Warhol and Elizabeth Taylor schmoozing in the embassy's blue-tiled Persian Room,” The New York Times reported in 1994. His wide orbit also embraced Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Senator Barry Goldwater.

The Washington Dossier, a now defunct monthly society magazine, called him “one of Washington's 10 perfect gentlemen.” He was also one of its most eligible bachelors and an irrepressible bon vivant. On any given night, he might be leading a conga line through Or he might be out on the town with Jacqueline Onassis, Liza Minnelli or Barbara Walters, though he was most often romantically linked with Ms. Taylor.