Word: mehdi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When the shaky government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan collapsed earlier this month, civilian administration in Iran virtually ceased to exist. In its place stood a powerful, 15-member committee composed of six Islamic mullahs and seven secular figures (there are two vacancies at present) and officially called the Islamic Revolutionary Council. Ayatullah Khomeini, the de facto ruler who declined to manage the government himself, gave the Council a mandate to rule Iran during a two-month transition period until the voters could approve a new theocratic constitution and elect a National Assembly and a President. Whether the internally divided...
...Former Prime Minister Mehdi] Bazargan says this country has a thousand sher iffs. It also has a thousand voices...
...State Department, Iran specialists were similarly uncertain about the degree of leftist and even Communist influence in the highly disorganized Khomeini regime. Was Khomeini really in charge or just presiding over an internal power struggle? Did the fall of the government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan two weeks ago portend a new campaign by Iranian leftists to seize power for themselves? One puzzling element in the recent unrest was the sudden fall from favor of Ibrahim Yazdi, who had been one of Khomeini's closest courtiers during the Ayatullah's last days in exile in France. Partly because...
...Instead, as it has had to do in a number of other recent crises, the Administration decided on restraint. Initially, the White House asked Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan to intervene. But last Tuesday, after months of trying to steer his country on a rational course, Bazargan resigned in frustration and anger, thus bringing down his government. Carter then designated former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and onetime State Department Iranian Expert William Miller as his personal envoys, both of whom knew Khomeini; the Ayatullah refused to see them. After that, the U.S. consented to try the good offices...
...Kurds feel betrayed by the revolution and the government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. They are especially enraged by the Pasdaran, who they say treat them "like a conquered province." Kurdish expectations are articulated in the platform of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which calls for locally elected city and provincial councils with responsibility for police courts and tax collecting...