Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...bitter power struggle with President Banisadr and Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh. For ten days the militants did everything they could to prevent the commission members from seeing the hostages; they argued that the visit had not been approved by the ailing spiritual leader of Iran's revolution, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. But then, as the commissioners prepared to leave for New York City, their mission a failure, the students suddenly announced that they would surrender control of the hostages to governmental authority...
...Council quickly responded by naming a committee to handle the transfer of the hostages to another location, probably under military jurisdiction. Banisadr met with Khomeini Thursday morning. The Ayatullah did not explicitly instruct the militants to obey Banisadr, but after their meeting he reaffirmed his faith in the new President and in the Revolutionary Council...
Those expectations appeared to be dashed when President Abolhassan Banisadr said that the two issues were not related. Then last week the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini announced that the hostages' release would have to be decided by the country's new Majlis (National Assembly), which will be elected later this month and convene on April 7. At week's end the militants apparently agreed that the U.N. commission members would be able to meet the hostages-but when and under what circumstances were not clear...
...deliver? The most plausible explanation was that the murky internal politics of Tehran were responsible. Both Banisadr, who has advocated release of the hostages since his election in January, and the militants at the embassy had been pressing Khomeini for a decision. Government insiders in Tehran contend that the Ayatullah could not afford to favor either side. If he instructed the militants to release their captives, he would lose face: until a month ago he had defended the hostage taking. If he sided with the militants, he would drastically undercut Banisadr and his attempts to fashion a stable government. Said...
Iran's revolution enters a new, secular phase as Ayatullah Khomeini and the mullahs are pushed aside. There is a power struggle-possibly even civil war-between various factions. Leftists, perhaps self-avowed Marxists, come out on top, but the unrest continues. Separatist Kurds stir up more trouble than ever from bases in Iraq and in NATO ally Turkey. Muslim militants declare a holy war on the godless Marxists and take to the hills. An embattled government in Tehran appeals to Moscow for help, and the Soviet Union accuses NATO of interfering in Iran's internal affairs. Authorities...