Word: hashemi
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What Bush is doing is all he can -- or should -- do. He has publicly thanked President Hafez Assad for his help in freeing Polhill, boosting the Syrian's prestige. He has passed the word that he is ready to talk with Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani. This sort of thing makes it easier for Syria and Iran to put pressure on the terrorists holding the hostages...
Even for Americans weary of the roller coaster of emotions that has been part of the hostage dilemma for years, the new development was tantalizing. Iran's President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose nation badly needs Western technology to rebuild its war-shattered economy, has been nodding his approval for the hostages' release, a signal to the Shi'ite Muslim groups that hold them, most of which are pro-Iranian. With its Soviet sponsor winding down its support, Syria, which has influence with the IJLP, has also been looking for ways to improve relations with the West...
...feeling is that the issue of the hostages is moving toward a solution," said Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani last week. With those words, Rafsanjani stoked the rumor mill that has been working at full blast since late February, when the Tehran Times called for the unconditional release of the 18 Western hostages, eight of them Americans, held in Lebanon for as long as five years. The day after the editorial appeared, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hizballah, a Lebanese group that holds some of the victims, added to the hopeful speculation by saying, "We have...
Iran, which has been working to improve relations with Moscow since the death of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini last year, seemed embarrassed by the turmoil. In fact, Khomeini's successor, Hashemi Rafsanjani, may have inadvertently fueled the rise of ethnic nationalism in Soviet Azerbaijan when he stopped off there last June after visiting Moscow. He told large crowds in Baku that bilateral agreements he had just signed would lead to increased tourism and trade between the two Azerbaijani regions...
...subdued hope of movement surrounded the news last week that the U.S. had consented to repay $567 million in frozen Iranian assets. The agreement was reached after two days of negotiations between State Department legal adviser Abraham Sofaer and a senior adviser to Iran's President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The two met in the Hague, site of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal that was set up as part of the 1981 deal that freed the 62 American embassy hostages in Tehran. Both sides agreed that Iran will be paid most of the balance remaining in an account established...