Word: iranian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Hojatoleslam Ahmad Khomeini, 42. Khomeini's son Ahmad, chief of staff for the Iranian leader, is a skillful behind-the-scenes power broker. He wields great influence by controlling who sees his father, and officials curry his favor. Ahmad Khomeini has no formal position in the government nor any well-defined set of followers, but his prestige as the son of the charismatic sage could take...
...there is no question that it happened. Initially in the perhaps illusory hope of gaining influence with a post-Khomeini government in Iran, but eventually also as an inducement for Iranian help in winning freedom for U.S. hostages held by Muslim zealots in Lebanon, the Reagan Administration approved clandestine shipments of military equipment -- ammunition, spare parts for tanks and jet fighters -- to Iran through Israel...
America's European allies, the recipients of much of that nagging, were outraged. Moreover, the U.S. was likely to forfeit the trust of moderate Arab nations that live in terror of Iranian-fomented Islamic fundamentalist revolutions and fear anything that might build up Tehran's military machine. Finally, the Administration seemed to have lost at least temporarily any chance of gaining the release of the missing six U.S. hostages in Lebanon, or of cultivating the Iranian politicians who might sooner or later take over from Khomeini. The 86-year-old Ayatullah is reported to be bedridden following a recent heart...
...story of how this came about leaked out in bits and pieces all last week from bewilderingly varied sources: an account published by a pro-Syrian weekly magazine in Beirut, a public speech by the speaker of the Iranian parliament, guarded private comments by government officials in Washington and Jerusalem, even a Danish sailor's revelations about a voyage through the Persian Gulf. Some of the more mind-boggling versions of the tale had touches of melodrama that might have come from the most lurid spy fiction: a presidential envoy slipping into Tehran bearing (so the Iranians claimed) presents...
...responsibility of the press, as well as the undisputed need of the Government to carry on sensitive negotiations in secret. In this instance, the story of the clandestine negotiations with Iran was broken not by the American press but by a Lebanese magazine and the speaker of the Iranian parliament. Together they provided the major outlines of the secret dealings. Even as President Reagan pleaded for a halt to speculation, sources within his own Government confirmed much of the speculation and added important details. While some congressional leaders questioned the wisdom of making such a deal in the first place...