Word: mehrabad
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...clear message to the regime of Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini that the episode at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran had still not been resolved as far as the Reagan Administration was concerned. The six-day hijacking had come to a dramatic end early last week when three Iranian security officers disguised as a physician and cleaning crew slipped on board the grounded Airbus and rescued nine hostages, including two Americans, who were found tied to their seats. Four Arabic-speaking hijackers, thought to be linked to the same pro-Khomeini Lebanese Shi'ite terrorist groups that some...
...military force" to combat terrorism. Said Shultz: "One of the best deterrents is the certainty that swift and sure measures will be taken against those who engage in it." But as frustrated U.S. officials tried to piece together a complete picture of what was going on at Mehrabad Airport, it seemed all too clear that a policy of retaliation had serious limitations. There was little that the U.S. could have done to prevent such a random act of terrorism. Indeed, in the absence of diplomatic relations with Iran, Washington could only depend on the help of Swiss and British intermediaries...
France 737 jet to Mehrabad Airport last July. But Iran was not so quick to put out the welcome mat early last Tuesday for the latest hijackers. The control tower in Tehran refused at first to give the Airbus permission to land and agreed only after the pilot sent a message that he was running low on fuel. The plane was immediately shunted off to a remote runway and surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, police and emergency vehicles...
Given the cold-blooded zealotry of the hijackers, there appeared to be no easy way out of the standoff at Mehrabad. A negotiated settlement was out of the question. Staunchly backed by Washington, Kuwaiti officials refused even to consider the terrorists' demands. Instead, they concentrated their diplomatic efforts on prodding Iran to take the necessary action. Algeria and Syria were enlisted as go-betweens, and the six states of the Gulf Cooperative Council bombarded Tehran with messages urging the Khomeini regime to make sure, as Tariq Almoayed, Bahrain's Minister of Information, put it, that "those who have...
Terrorism, in the words of Secretary of State Shultz, is "a new kind of warfare." As the tragic events at Mehrabad Airport demonstrated, the outcome of this conflict could ultimately be determined as much by strength of will as by strength of arms. At week's end there appeared to be no logical way to cope with a few angry and fanatic men who had killed-and were vowing to kill again. -By John Kohan...