Interim Government of Iran (1979)

When Khomeini returned to a revolutionary Iran after his 15-year exile, he sought a transitional government to govern until a new constitution could be ratified. However, he faced opposition from Shapour Bakhtiar, whom the outgoing Shah had tasked with establishing a civilian administration^[6] On 4 February 1979, Khomeini issued a decree appointing Bazargan, a veteran member of the Freedom Movement of Iran, as the prime minister of a "Provisional Islamic Revolutionary Government" (PRG).^{[7][8][9][10][11]} In his decree, Khomeini made it clear that Iranians were religiously obliged to obey Bazargan and the new government:

As a man who, through the guardianship that I have from the holy lawgiver, I hereby pronounce Bazargan as the ruler, and since I have appointed him, he must be obeyed. The nation must obey him. This is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on sharia. Opposing this government means opposing the sharia of Islam...revolt against God's government is a revolt against God. Revolt against God is blasphemy.^[12] —Ruhollah Khomeini

Khomeini's statement came before the Iranian Army announced it would remain neutral in conflicts between revolutionaries and guardians of the government left in place by the Shah.^[13] Bakhtiar, rendered powerless, resigned the same day of the announcement, 11 February 1979, which is now officially remembered in Iran as the Islamic Revolution's Victory Day.^[14] The new provisional government, however, was described as "subordinate" to the Revolutionary Council, having had difficulty dealing with conflicting messages and decision-making from the latter.^[15]

The date of the establishment is disputed while most sources say 4 February or 5 February other sources even say 11 February.^{[16][17][18][19][9][20][21][22][23]}

According to historian Mohammad Ataie, the cabinet consisted of two main factions: moderates and radicals.^[24] Most of the cabinet members were nationalist veterans and sympathizers of the Freedom Movement of Iran, with a few from the National Front.^[25] Bazargan reshuffled his cabinet several times following the resignation of ministers who were unable to deal with parallel sources of power. In several cases, a ministry was supervised by an acting minister or by Bazargan himself.

Bazargan and his entire cabinet resigned on 6 November 1979, just two days after a student group approved by Khomeini took sixty-six American Embassy officials hostage. In his resignation letter to Khomeini, Bazargan lamented that "repeated interferences, inconveniences, objections and disputes have made [The Interim Government] unable to continue [meeting its] duties."

Power then passed into the hands of the Council of the Islamic Revolution. Bazargan had been a supporter of the original revolutionary draft constitution rather than theocracy by Islamic jurist, and his resignation was received by Khomeini without protest, who stated that "Mr. Bazargan...was a little tired and preferred to stay on the sidelines for a while." Khomeini later described his appointment of Bazargan as a "mistake."^[29] Bazargan, on the other hand, described the government as a "knife without blade."^[30]

• Interim Government of Iran (1981)
• Iranian Revolution
• Iran hostage crisis