Word: mehdi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...weaponry, which included 80 F-14 fighters so advanced that they were sold to no other foreign country, fell into the hands of the Ayatullah's revolutionary government after the collapse of the Shah's regime in February 1979. To promote ties to the moderate government of Mehdi Bazargan and the armed forces, the Carter Administration conducted secret negotiations with Tehran, creating a framework for the subsequent delivery of most of the $5 billion worth of military supplies ordered by the Shah. Explains a former high U.S. intelligence official: "We were desperate for any contact...
...more spectacular raids, guerrillas surrounded an Islamic Guard training base at Sardasht, in Kurdistan, and attacked it with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. More than 30 guards died in the assault. Yet another incident underlines the seriousness of what amounts to an undeclared civil war in Iran: early this month, Mehdi Mohammadi Gilani, son of Khomeini's chief Islamic justice, Ayatullah Mohammadi Gilani, was killed in an armed clash with the guards. He was the third and last Gilani son to die fighting the regime that his father protects...
...first week of September, the West German government informed American diplomats that Iran wanted to open negotiations about the hostages through a secret emissary. The agent was Sadegh Tabatabai, a brother-in-law of Khomeini's son Seyyed Achmed and a former Deputy Prime Minister under Mehdi Bazargan...
...early as October 1979, the Algerians were instrumental in setting up an inconclusive meeting between National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Iran's then Premier Mehdi Bazargan. After the hostages were seized by the militant Iranians, the Tehran government asked Algeria to represent its interests in Washington. Thus a certain logic was involved when Iran, at the urging of Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, last November asked Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Yahia to help arrange a hostage deal...
...have a commanding military presence in the area and-above all-the danger to the hostages. Their captors threatened executions at once if the U.S. made any military move to liberate them. Carter had no choice but to negotiate. He tried dealing with moderate Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, who seemed to be sympathetic on the day after the seizure of the hostages. Bazargan resigned his office in frustration the day after that, confessing that it was not his government but Khomeini and his followers who held power. Carter dispatched former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and former Foreign Service Officer...