Word: algerianness
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...hostage crisis came, as a dramatic climax to a pressure-packed week of high-level international bargaining. The evidence that the end was at hand could not have been more tangible: at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, which was suddenly closed to routine air traffic, sat a Boeing 707 Algerian airliner, poised to fly the 52 Americans to freedom...
Everything seemed in place for an imminent end to America's most humbling experience since its withdrawal from Viet Nam. A team of Algerian doctors had flown to Tehran to examine the hostages. Some $2.2 billion in Iranian gold and currency had been transferred from New York to London so that it could be turned over to Iran within minutes of the Americans' departure from Tehran. A 30-member U.S. hostage recovery team, including former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, was ready in Washington to fly to West Germany to meet the released hostages at a U.S. military...
...Farsi versions of the final text of the complex agreements would have to be compared. Carter would have to sign certain papers and order certain actions for the U.S. Beyond the $2.2 billion positioned for delivery, European and American bankers apparently would have to transfer other funds before that Algerian airliner could take off. Once it was in the air with the Americans, Iran's leverage over any further cash deliveries would evaporate...
Then Iran's chief hostage negotiator, Behzad Nabavi, compounded the confusion at a much ballyhooed press conference. Declared Nabavi: "The Algerian government has said in its proposal that it is ready to accept the undertakings of both sides." He refused to be specific about the content of the Algerian plan, but indicated that it "has been considered and discussed and has generally been agreed to in principle." Just what the Algerian suggestion was all about remained a mystery. The very existence of an independent Algerian "plan" was vehemently denied by both Algerian diplomats and State Department officials. While conceding...
Whatever it was, an intermediary Algerian role seemed important to the Iranian leaders, chiefly as a face-saving device for backing down from their extortionary demands. Said a senior Iranian diplomat in Tehran: "The mullahs' political capital is based on their anti-Americanism. Their problem is that they want both a hostage deal and a sure way to avoid loss of face. Thus the latest strategy for compromise with America is to maneuver Algeria into holding...