Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Iran's Ayatullah Khomeini seized his nation and shook all Islam...
...lean figure of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini towered malignly over the globe. As the leader of Iran's revolution he gave the 20th century world a frightening lesson in the shattering power of irrationality, of the ease with which terrorism can be adopted as government policy. As the new year neared, 50 of the American hostages seized on Nov. 4 by a mob of students were still inside the captured U.S. embassy in Tehran, facing the prospect of being tried as spies by Khomeini's revolutionary courts. The Ayatullah, who gave his blessing to the capture, has made impossible...
...Ayatullah is no friend of the Soviets. Far from it: while in his mind "America is the great Satan," he knows, and has often said, that Communism is incompatible with Islam. Tehran mobs have occasionally chanted "Communism will die!" as well as "Death to Carter...
...Moscow can hardly ignore the opportunity presented by Khomeini's rise. An Iran sliding into anarchy, and a Middle East shaken by the furies of Khomeini's followers, would offer the Soviets a chance to substitute their own influence for the Western presence that the Ayatullah's admirers vow to expel. And the Middle East is an unparalleled geopolitical prize...
...voted in the United Nations and World Court to free the hostages. At the same tune, to Washington's intense annoyance, the Soviets have proclaimed sympathy for Iran's anger against the U.S. The Kremlin apparently wants to keep lines open to Khomeini's followers, if not to the Ayatullah himself, while it awaits its chance...