Word: ayatullah
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Like almost everything else in Iran today, the reasons behind Seib's arrest remain a puzzle. The incident could have resulted from the continuing power struggle between the ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, the designated successor to the aging, ailing Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Iranian parliament. The journalists had been invited by Rafsanjani supporters, and Montazeri's men may have been trying to embarrass them by arresting the reporter...
Whatever their immediate motives, Lebanon's Shi'ite terrorists, who revere Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini and want to turn Lebanon into a fundamentalist Muslim state, have embarked on an orgy of abductions since the beginning of the year. Of the 24 foreign captives now being held in Lebanon, eight are Americans, six Frenchmen and two West Germans. Recent victims include two Saudi Arabians, a sign that the terrorists may be trying to pressure the Saudis to moderate their support for Iraq in its six-year-old war with Iran...
...dealings with Iran have been portrayed as an overture to moderates led by Speaker of the Parliament Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Actually, CIA sources say, Ghorbanifar had persuaded the entire political leadership of the Islamic republic, including Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi and Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, designated successor to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, to assent to secret contacts with the U.S. Two reasons: the Iranians feared the Soviet threat more than any from the West; and they hoped that American arms would soon follow improved relations with...
...year-old gulf conflict dragged on, military observers noted a strategic anomaly. Despite clear advantages in weaponry and training, the Iraqis have thus far been unwilling to commit troops decisively on the front to dislodge the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's fanatical Revolutionary Guards. Said Pentagon Spokesman Robert Sims: "The battle for Basra is becoming one of the largest battles of this lengthy...
...around the Persian Gulf. It is then that Iran, knowing the heavy rains will blunt the firepower of Iraq's tanks and air force, can most effectively launch its "human wave" assaults against the Iraqi marshlands. For months now, as it has for several winters past, the government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini has been threatening to launch a "final offensive" against the Iraqis before the beginning of the Persian new year on March...