Word: bazargan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...leader of the only opposition party tolerated in Iran, former Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan is one of a handful of political figures allowed to voice mild criticism in public of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Bazargan has usually exercised the privilege with restraint. But last week Iranian exiles in Paris distributed copies of an open letter to Khomeini, said to have been written by Bazargan, in which the Ayatullah was accused of having created a "despotism worthy of the pharaohs...
...which included 80 F-14 fighters so advanced that they were sold to no other foreign country, fell into the hands of the Ayatullah's revolutionary government after the collapse of the Shah's regime in February 1979. To promote ties to the moderate government of Mehdi Bazargan and the armed forces, the Carter Administration conducted secret negotiations with Tehran, creating a framework for the subsequent delivery of most of the $5 billion worth of military supplies ordered by the Shah. Explains a former high U.S. intelligence official: "We were desperate for any contact...
...messages. Bazargan announced publicly his eagerness to have good relations with the U.S. But he soon ran into trouble from Khomeini's revolutionaries, who formed armed bands all over Iran and arrested hundreds of people, trying them on the spot and executing them...
...happened that Henry Precht, the State Department s Director for Iranian Affairs, was in Iran with Laingen at the time. They were instructed to inform Bazargan and Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi of the Shah's condition, tell them of our possible plans to provide treatment for him and seek their assistance. The next day I received a message from Laingen. He had told the two top Iranian officials that neither the Shah nor his wife would be involved in political activities while in the U.S., and asked for a guarantee of protection for American citizens in Iran. They...
...early as October 1979, the Algerians were instrumental in setting up an inconclusive meeting between National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Iran's then Premier Mehdi Bazargan. After the hostages were seized by the militant Iranians, the Tehran government asked Algeria to represent its interests in Washington. Thus a certain logic was involved when Iran, at the urging of Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, last November asked Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Yahia to help arrange a hostage deal...