Word: mehdi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...head of the Islamic Republic Party, Beheshti was primarily responsible for forcing the resignation of Iran's first postrevolution Prime Minister, Mehdi Bazargan-who has neither forgiven nor forgotten. Beheshti endorsed the militants takeover of the U.S. embassy, and supports their refusal to turn the hostages over to the government. Once again, many Iranians believe, Beheshti is motivated less by ideology than by expediency and could well abandon the students if their cause seems lost. Observers note that Beheshti has never allowed the charter of his party to be published. Says one critic: "He does not want to commit...
Khomeini withdrew to the holy city of Qum, appointed a government headed by Mehdi Bazargan, an engineer by training and veteran of Mossadegh's Cabinet, and announced that he would confine his own role during "the one or two years left to me" to making sure that Iran followed "in the image of Muhammad." It quickly became apparent that real power resided in the revolutionary komitehs that sprang up all over the country, and the komitehs took orders only from the 15-man Revolutionary Council headed by Khomeini (the names of its other members were long kept secret). Bazargan...
...Mehdi Haeri, a onetime student of Khomeini's who now teaches at Georgetown University, feels that Khomeini has changed over the years: "He's more militant now. He's more stubborn, less flexible, less subtle." As they try to analyze Khomeini from a distance, some Western intelligence sources conclude that he is an authoritarian personality who thinks almost totally in black-and-white terms, has only a limited tactical flexibility and is unlikely to tolerate any challenge to his power. He has strong narcissistic traits and reacts to threats by demagogy. But Khomeini is capable of backing away, albeit reluctantly...