Word: banisadr
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...Banisadr is off to a fast start as President
Undoubtedly the most positive of the signs was the take-charge attitude of President Abolhassan Banisadr, 47, who took the oath of office last week after having been elected with an impressive 76% of the vote. When the militants who are holding the U.S. embassy published documents supposedly Unking Iran's National Guidance Minister Nasser Minachi with the CIA, Banisadr denounced the militants as "lawless dictators" and criticized the national radio and television network for spreading their propaganda. Then he ordered the release from prison of Minachi, who is regarded as a man with impeccable revolutionary credentials...
...whose popularity seems to be ebbing. Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh warned that the government would use force, if necessary, to enforce its decision if and when it agrees to free the hostages. Early in the week, the militants called off a demonstration that had been scheduled to coincide with Banisadr's swearing-in ceremony, apparently because they feared the populace would not turn out. The number of militants present at the U.S. embassy was reported to have dropped from around 400 as of last month...
...Banisadr also won a battle against the ambitious mullahs who resented the rise of a layman to a position of such importance in the revolution. They tried to postpone the oath-taking ceremony until after elections to the National Assembly next month. But Iran's strongman, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, who has been hospitalized for three weeks following a heart attack, ordered the ceremony to proceed immediately. Khomeini himself administered the oath of office to Banisadr at the Heart Hospital in north Tehran...
...next day Banisadr, with Khomeini's blessing, was also appointed chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Council. He easily won the council's support for a plan to create an international commission of inquiry for hearing Iran's grievances against the deposed Shah and his U.S. supporters. The plan could become the first step toward gaining the release of the American hostages...