Word: akbar
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that the U.S. appears to tolerate in the unending hostage dilemma. All week the White House navigated between the same poles of military threat and diplomatic engagement that earlier Administrations had tried. Yet by week's end there was a tantalizing glimpse of flexibility: Iran's new President, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, offered to "help" find a solution to the hostage problem, thus raising the hope that Bush will not be boxed in by the implacable hostility of Iran as his predecessors were during the reign of the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini...
...swiftly overshadowed by the violence endemic to the divided Holy Land. Only 18 hours after Shamir's announcement, an Arab fundamentalist from Gaza whose family had been wounded by Israeli soldiers grabbed the wheel of an Israeli bus as it traveled along the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. Shouting "Allah Akbar!" (("God is great!")), he sent the bus hurtling down a 495-ft. ravine. The fiery plunge killed 14 people and wounded an additional 27. It was the worst single attack against Israelis since the start of the uprising. "This is a shocking disaster," Shamir said, "the fruit of a disgusting...
...Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini earlier this month put pressure on Iran to make some kind of move to break out of the diplomatic isolation into which it had become sealed during his decade-long xenophobic rule. The main question was which direction Tehran would look in first. Last week Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful Speaker of Iran's parliament, provided the answer. Interrupting his observance of a 40-day period of national mourning for the late Imam, Rafsanjani arrived in Moscow to an elaborate reception. The visit was the beginning of a thaw between neighbors whose relations had been frosty...
...utter isolation in the world of nations had become apparent just two weeks before the cease-fire decision, when a U.S. frigate mistakenly shot down an Iranian jetliner with 290 people aboard: international response was notably muted. In the following months, leading Iranian politicians such as Parliamentary Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 54, attempted to soften their country's radical image. But Khomeini would have none of it. Last February he prompted a worldwide outcry when he demanded the death of Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born, British author of The Satanic Verses, a book many regard as blasphemous to Islam...
...turned to Khomeini's son Ahmed, 43, who has been increasingly visible lately. The extent of Ahmed's influence became more apparent last week, when a 110-page memo surfaced in which he accused Montazeri of disloyalty. Khomeini the younger, however, must contend with powerful Parliamentary Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who last week emerged from a visit with the Ayatullah to declare, "God willing, we will see the Imam for long years, healthier and stronger...