Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...until last Saturday, after a week of retaliation and counterretaliation, that the first apparent break in the conflict came. The Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's de facto head of state, ordered the students to release the women and blacks, believed to number a dozen, who were being held hostage. "Islam grants to women a special status," explained Khomeini in announcing his decision, and blacks "have spent ages under American pressure and tyranny...
...surprise that the Ayatullah and his supporters blame most of their persistent troubles on the deposed Shah ?and on his friends abroad. Says Iranian Expert James Bill of the University of Texas: "If there is any issue Khomeini's government has seized upon, it is the Shah, whom they consider to be murderous. When the U.S. let him in, even for humanitarian reasons, it was almost predictable that there would be a tremendous reaction in Iran." In Bill's view, many Iranians still fear that the Shah might be attempting a comeback, with covert U.S. assistance. "To us that...
After Bazargan's government fell, the Administration's next step was to select Clark and Miller to fly to Tehran and negotiate with the Ayatullah. Clark had been an early U.S. supporter of Khomeini and had visited him last January in France; Miller was a former Foreign Service officer in Iran who had opposed Administration policy toward the Shah. The two men had already left for Iran when Khomeini announced that he would not meet with them. The White House told them to remain in Istanbul until the situation became clearer...
...guarded airport on the outskirts of Kampala, a city with a population of only some 350,000, the American hostages were in downtown Tehran. To get to the embassy, U.S. forces would have to fight their way through streets probably clogged deliberately by huge crowds called out by the Ayatullah Khomeini. Many Iranians would undoubtedly have weapons, including perhaps a few of their army's armored cars and even tanks. By the time the rescuers reached the embassy, there would be scant hope of finding any hostages alive-or even of finding them there...
...they want is power, like the Ayatullah or Fidel Castro...