Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...evinces no signs of accommodating Saddam Hussein's wishes. Tehran insists that peace can be achieved only after three conditions are satisfied: the repatriation of 120,000 Iraqi Shi'ites exiled in Iran, the payment of $150 billion in war reparations and "punishment of the aggressor." For Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini and other mullahs in the government hierarchy, the last condition means nothing less than Saddam Hussein's ouster, the destruction of the ruling Baath Party and the establishment of a pro-Iran Shi'ite regime in Baghdad...
Under the cover of darkness last Wednesday night, the invading Iranian forces of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini launched a large-scale artillery barrage that lit the eastern sky. Tanks rushed forward in long columns, flanked on either side by Iranian Revolutionary Guards carrying rifles with fixed bayonets. Thus resumed the fierce battle for Basra, Iraq's second largest city, which lies only 14 miles from the Iran-Iraq border. Once again the fighting involved tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides, and in scope and intensity resembled the desert battles of World War II. The Iraqi forces...
...These commanders believe that Iran should try to wear down the enemy more slowly without wasting men and resources. Through further attacks, they reason, they could weaken the Iraqis' morale and gradually expand the size of the Basra front, which at present is only ten miles wide. The Ayatullah reportedly rejects such talk out of hand. Complains a former military official in Tehran: "Khomeini and his aides think only of one thing, the protection of their regime at any cost...
Personal motives played an important part in Khomeini's decision to send his forces into Iraq. The Ayatullah, who was exiled to Iraq's Holy City of An Najaf after several arrests for anti-Shah activities, has never forgiven Saddam Hussein for trying to use him as a pawn in Iraqi-Iranian relations. To placate the Shah during a short-lived period of rapprochement betweeen the two countries, Saddam Hussein placed Khomeini under virtual house arrest in 1975. Three years later, as the Shah came under increasing pressure from Islamic fundamentalists operating with Khomeini's backing, Saddam...
Almost every day, government officials, military officers, clerics and foreign representatives travel to Khomeini's modest home in Jamaran, a village north of Tehran. Some have been summoned to brief the Ayatullah on everything from logistic problems on the Iraqi front to statistics on mosque attendance. Others who wish to see Khomeini must submit a request through a cleric who acts as an appointments secretary; Khomeini receives only a small proportion of those seeking an audience. Sometimes he will make an appearance at the mosque adjacent to his house. There...