Word: mohtashami
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Dates: during 1987-1987
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...Eiffel Tower, a beefed-up force of 200 police surrounded the ornate Iranian embassy, floodlighting the building at night to prevent the departure of its 45 occupants. French security agents even checked nearby sewers to make sure no one left the building clandestinely. In Tehran, Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashami announced that the French embassy had been cordoned off and that some of its officials would be arrested for spying. His threat quickly raised fears that the French diplomats might be seized in an ugly replay of the U.S. embassy hostage nightmare of 1979-81. Warned Christian Bourguet, a French...
...Saturday, Mohtashami made his espionage charges, claiming that the French diplomats had "acted as a connecting bridge to help counterrevolutionaries escape abroad and also to help link splinter groups inside Iran." French officials accused Iran of making the spying allegations in order to create a situation parallel to the standoff in Paris. They announced that if Tehran approves, Italy will represent France in Iran, where nearly 300 French nationals still reside, in addition to the embassy personnel. The first job for the Italians would be to try to defuse the crisis by negotiating the mutual repatriation of the French...
...which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, expressed support for France's firm stance. The Reagan Administration was engaged in its own war of words with Tehran. Interior Minister Mohtashami vowed retaliation if the U.S. proceeded this week with its plans to reflag Kuwaiti tankers and use American warships to protect the vessels in the Persian Gulf. Said Mohtashami: "Islamic Revolutionary Guards will turn the Persian Gulf into a graveyard for the Americans." According to some reports, Iran has mobilized seaborne suicide squads, who plan to ram U.S. ships with vessels that have been turned into floating...