"Island of Stability" is a phrase that became the namesake for a 1977 speech by American presidentJimmy Carter, while he was being hosted byMohammad Reza Pahlavi at theNiavaran Complex inTehran,Iran. It was a reflection of Iran's circumstances — regarded as a stable country and a bastion of theWestern Bloc in what was otherwise an unstableMiddle East under the influence of theEastern Bloc — and the importance placed on the Shah's rule by theUnited States. Carter's speech was made one year before the onset of theIslamic Revolution, which overthrew thePahlavi dynasty and replaced it with theIslamic Republic.
In late December 1977, Carter visited the Shah in Iran. At a party forNew Year's Eve, held in Tehran's Niavaran Complex, he made a speech describing the American stance on Iran's place in the world order, stating: "Iran is an island of stability in one of the most troubled areas of the world";[1][2] he also described Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a popularshah among the Iranian people.[3][4]
After Carter's speech, the Shah felt encouraged to further suppress his political opponents. One week later, in January 1978, the article "Iran and Red and Black Colonization" was published inEttela'at under a pseudonym, targetingRuhollah Khomeini. Following the article's publication, several protests occurred inMashhad,Qom, andTehran. Khomeini condemned Carter and described the Shah as a tyrant and a traitor to the Iranian nation.[5]
Iranian journalistAhmad Zeidabadi claimed that Carter was aware of the regional instability spurred by sporadic protests against Pahlavi rule in Iran, and so he made the speech for the Shah as a reassurance of American support.[6] Iranian academicSadegh Zibakalam has stated that the speech was based on Carter's false impression of Iran's circumstances, and that the American government misjudged the true scope of the Islamic Revolution.[7]
