Word: hashemi
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...Reagan Administration of their moderation while publicly proclaiming their hostility to the West. Sources in both Tehran and Washington say the U.S. has been approached on several occasions over the past three weeks by intermediaries who claim to represent senior Iranian officials, including Speaker of the Parliament Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani...
Meanwhile, Iranian officials continued to vow retribution for the U.S. attack on the ship Iran Ajr, whose crew was caught laying mines in Persian Gulf waters two weeks ago. Declared Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani: "It is sweeter for us to have a direct confrontation with the U.S. because we would be fighting with the root cause of the war." In the gulf, however, Iran avoided any confrontation with U.S. warships as the tanker war raged anew...
Rafsanjani's political position was reinforced last week, when Mehdi Hashemi was executed. Although Hashemi was accused of kidnaping, murder and plotting against the regime, his role in exposing attempts by Rafsanjani to buy arms from the U.S. in exchange for hostages helped seal his fate. After Hashemi's arrest, his supporters leaked details of Rafsanjani's deals with the U.S. to the Beirut magazine ash-Shiraa, thereby precipitating the Iran-contra scandal...
Last week Iran's Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani seemingly acknowledged the importance of the Syrian pressure. In an interview on NBC's Today, Rafsanjani suggested an exchange of foreign hostages held in Lebanon for Shi'ite Muslims imprisoned in Kuwait and Israel. Such deals have previously been turned down by Kuwait, Israel and, indeed, the U.S. But the Rafsanjani offer clearly implied a desire among some factions in Iran to improve Tehran's ties with the outside world and soothe Syrian irritation over the hostage taking in Lebanon...
Iranian officials responded to the U.S. military buildup with new warnings. Late in the week, Tehran Radio admitted that Iran was indeed sowing mines "to defend our coastline." Earlier, Hashemi Rafsanjani, the parliamentary speaker, had told an interviewer that Iran has factories "that can produce mines like seeds." Meanwhile, for the first time in the crisis the Iranian military went on the offensive. Two Iranian high-speed patrol boats fired on the Liberian-registered Osco Sierra, then boarded and searched the cargo ship...