Word: banisadr
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...Ayatullah Seyyed Mohammed Beheshti, the ranking member of the ruling Revolutionary Council, Banisadr's clerical rivals won at least 130 of 270 parliamentary seats in the May 9 voting, the results of which were announced only last week. Banisadr's supporters gained a mere 41 seats, while an assortment of independent mullahs, liberal democrats and nationalists won 71. Undecided are 28 seats, which mostly belong to two provinces-Kurdistan and Khuzistan-torn by civil war and political unrest...
...Banisadr tried to shore up his own position by a constitutional maneuver aimed at outflanking the mullahs. He presented Khomeini with an emergency program to save the Islamic revolution from "conspiracies." Specifically, he requested authority to appoint a Prime Minister. Khomeini, who has become increasingly irritated at Banisadr's appeals for help, replied curtly, "Consent granted...
...mood and blocked the President's attempts to appoint a Prime Minister. Declared Beheshti haughtily: "The difficulty is that once a Prime Minister is approved by the Imam, then the Majlis [National Assembly] won't be able to vote freely on his appointment." Adding to his humiliation, Banisadr last week lost a lesser battle against Ayatullah Sadegh Khalkhali, an Islamic judge who had sentenced more than 100 Kurdish rebels and officials of the Pahlavi regime to death. When Banisadr denied Khalkhali's right to exercise judicial functions as chief narcotics investigator, the cleric openly defied him, forcing...
...Banisadr's problems are compounded by economic woes. Unemployment is currently about 30%, and industrial production is only at 30% of capacity. Daily oil output has sunk to about 2 million bbl., far below the 6 million bbl. produced under the Shah. Production threatened to fall even lower when a major pipeline in Kermanshah province was blown up, presumably by antigovernment Iranian Arabs...
Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie has denounced the murder and called upon Iran's President Abolhassan Banisadr to safeguard the nation's religious minorities, already officially protected by law. The Koran advocates tolerance for Jews and Christians as "People of the Book" (in their case the Bible). Beyond that, the nation's new Islamic constitution guarantees freedom for both religions and for Zoroastrianism as well, provided they are practiced "within the law." (That means, for example, they cannot use wine in ritual because alcohol is banned in Iran.) Others are guaranteed no freedom of worship...