Word: banisadre
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...when humor can be found in the Tehran situation, I suggest a film starring Sellers as the Shah, Khomeini and Banisadr-the last without makeup...
There are, it now appears, two sets of hostages in Tehran. One consists of the 50 Americans who have been held prisoner at the U.S. embassy by Iranian student militants for 4½ months. The other is the fledgling government of President Abolhassan Banisadr. Ending an intense battle of wills between the militants and the government over the fate of the hostages, the ailing spiritual leader of Iran's revolution, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, decreed last week that a five-member United Nations commission could see the American hostages only after it first published a report on the crimes...
Khomeini's decision was a humiliating defeat for Banisadr and his moderate colleagues; only a few days earlier Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh had all but maneuvered the militants into turning over their hostages to the ruling Revolutionary Council as a necessary first step in arranging for their release. The decision was also a slap in the face of the U.N. commissioners, who had overstayed their visit to Tehran in the hope of seeing the hostages. They returned to New York City last week, their mission officially "suspended." In Washington, frustrated officials of the Carter Administration were not only wondering...
...answer appeared to be that government officials had violated an informal understanding with the Ayatullah. In late February, Khomeini ruled that the new National Assembly, which is being elected this month and will convene some time in April, would have the final say on the hostages' future. Meanwhile, Banisadr and the Revolutionary Council would be in charge. Khomeini, who is recovering from a heart attack he suffered two months ago, would remain silent; the government, however, had his backing so long as it did everything on its own authority and did not involve him directly in any negotiations...
...main reason Banisadr wants the hostage crisis resolved is to concentrate his country's attention on Iran's economy, which is in desperate shape. Oil production, according to Western experts, is well below the government's official estimate of 2.7 million bbl. per day; construction is at a standstill; productivity has dropped by 80% in some large plants; tourism has vanished. Wages have been breed up by as much as 200% as the result of government decrees and worker militancy. The newly nationalized banking system is in confusion. Many Iranians fear their country could soon become little...