Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first of the hostages, came a shocking announcement that promised only to worsen the crisis. Many of the remaining hostages, proclaimed a spokesman for the students, would now be tried for espionage in the Islamic Revolutionary Courts and "punished in accordance with the severity of their crimes." The Ayatullah himself later confirmed the scheme, adding that the trials would only be halted and the hostages let go if the U.S. returned the Shah. Warned a senior official of West Germany's foreign ministry when told of the threat: "With the turmoil and fanaticism in Iran, one has to be prepared...
Using Khomeini as a cover, extremists of the left are trying to reinforce their position, thereby setting the scene for possible civil war. The Ayatullah Khomeini, old and ailing, does not understand modern statecraft, diplomacy or administration. Jimmy Carter does not know how to deal with him; neither does anybody else. Says a European diplomat: "What can you do when faced with a mad geriatric case?" Yet this remarkable old man, and he alone, seems to possess the power to preserve his volatile country from total anarchy?and to free the rest of the American hostages in Tehran...
...slated to be released for a "press conference" before some 200 American and other foreign correspondents. The three?two 23-year-old black Marines and a 22-year-old female secretary?were seated at a table in front of three colored posters of the Ayatullah and slogans denouncing the exiled Shah of Iran and President Carter. Read?one misspelled poster: CARTER IS SUPPORTING THIS NASTY CRIMINAL UNDER THE PROTEX OF SICKNESS...
...Thursday, when Banisadr first said the Iranians might release some hostages, the student leaders actually occupying the embassy property quickly asserted that they took orders only from the Ayatullah Khomeini, and that nobody was going to be released until the U.S. had sent the Shah back to Iran. Admitted one White House official: "We don't know with any certainty who these students are or who's in charge. That doubles the trouble...
...government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan two weeks ago portend a new campaign by Iranian leftists to seize power for themselves? One puzzling element in the recent unrest was the sudden fall from favor of Ibrahim Yazdi, who had been one of Khomeini's closest courtiers during the Ayatullah's last days in exile in France. Partly because he had spent 16 years in the U.S. and had become a naturalized American citizen (a fact that he denied steadfastly during his seven months as Foreign Minister), the U.S. had hoped that Yazdi would prove useful in rebuilding Washington's ties...