Word: raja
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Responding for the mullahs' camp, Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Raja'i rose in the parliament to defend the government's handling of the negotiations. Iran's problems, he asserted, resulted from its revolutionary upheavals and not from the hostage crisis. No other regime, he said, "could have obtained from the United States more than this government has." Chief Hostage Negotiator Behzad Nabavi later conceded that Tehran got much less than the $24 billion it had originally demanded, but added somewhat lamely: "We should avoid looking at the issue through a trader's eyes. Our political...
...until recently wanted the Americans to be kept captive, managed to subdue the more Western-oriented moderates led by President Abolhassan Banisadr, who would have preferred to release the hostages. The mullahs gained control of the Cabinet, parliament and judiciary and forced Banisadr to accept Fundamentalist Mohammed Ali Raja'i as Prime Minister. Then Banisadr, as commander in chief of the Iranian armed forces, gained great popularity with the people by leading the war against Iraq. He cannily avoided any involvement in the fundamentalists' negotiations with the U.S., thus dissociating himself from the inevitable fallout when the Americans...
Hopes for a quick agreement faded after the U.S. text reached Iran on Saturday morning. Prime Minister Raja'i canceled a scheduled press conference and a meeting with foreign ambassadors without explanation. He and Iran's top hostage negotiators then sent a request for clarifications, apparently on the money question, through the Algerians to Christopher. The Iranians seemed to be dissatisfied with the limited movement of cash and gold made by the U.S. Still, no insurmountable obstacles were raised anew by Iran. At the White House, Powell declared: "I am not aware of anything that changes the relative...
...early September, Secretary of State Muskie sent a letter asking for the hostages' release to Mohammed Ali Raja'i, the devout Khomeini follower who was Iran's new Prime Minister. The letter was the first direct communication between the governments since before the April raid. Khomeini replied, giving conditions for the hostages' release, and for the first time did not mention the necessity of an American apology. The Ayatullah demanded merely the return of the Shah's fortune, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, cancellation of U.S. claims against Iran, and a pledge of noninterference...
...Iraq over an old border dispute, there was severe pressure on both sides to end the hostage ordeal. Carter said that the U.S. was strictly neutral in the war but hinted that spare military parts might be delivered to Iran if the hostages were let go. Prime Minister Raja'i unexpectedly flew to New York and complained to the U.N. that Iraq's belligerence was inspired by the U.S. But the fact was that Iran needed its spare parts and its frozen assets, which Carter seemed ready to deliver. Despite eruptions from the fundamentalists, who still hungered...