Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. There were no signs during Genscher's visit that Iran's fanatical Shi'ite Muslim leaders had changed their opinion of the U.S. "devil," but West German officials found them less prone to heap verbal abuse on the West. When Genscher expressed concern about the fighting in the gulf, the Iranians said they were also eager to prevent the war from widening...
...Muslims, some of whom were sympathetic to Iran's Islamic revolution. Yet Iranian bullying compelled many Shi'ites to renounce Iran's politics, causing a change in Kuwait's orientation. "What the Shah failed to do," says one bitter opposition leader, "[Ayatullah Ruhollah] Khomeini is actually succeeding in doing. The Shah wanted to force us into an alliance with the Americans in the region. Now Khomeini is forcing us into that alliance by fear...
...roll could grind to a halt, however, if the economic recovery fizzles. "The economy is the ball game this year. Everything depends on it," concedes a top Reagan aide. Imagery is fragile. Jimmy Carter seemed refreshingly down-home in his blue jeans and cardigan until inflation rocketed and the Ayatullah Khomeini seized Iran and the hostages; then he looked to many like a peanut farmer in over his head. Reagan cuts a fine figure at ceremonies, but in hard times he might seem much too blithe and out of touch. The Democrats will argue, of course, that hard times...
What does all this mean? One opinion is that Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini is coming around to a more pragmatic position. Another is that he is simply trying to convince the U.S. that Iran is not out to get Washington's gulf allies and that the U.S. should therefore not "tilt" in favor of Iraq. The latter view assumes that Iran's war aims have not changed and will not until Saddam Hussein falls or Khomeini dies...
...into Iraq's beleaguered port of Basra; Iraq retaliated by hitting the Iranian oil city of with a single missile, killing twelve people. Some observers thought the activity was a prelude to another, long-awaited &quoet;human wave" offensive by Iran, a view reinforced by a decloration of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini that last Tuesday would be remembered as "an epic day." But the day passed without any sign of the Iranian offensive...