Word: rajavi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...very group Raja'i and Bahonar were discussing as they were killed. Of the dozen factions that oppose Khomeini, the Mujahedin have emerged as the best organized and the most likely to bid for power in the event of the regime's collapse. Their leader, Massoud Rajavi, 34, is hardly known abroad-unlike Banisadr, whose escape to France was engineered by the Mujahedin. But with thousands of armed men at his command inside Iran, Rajavi poses the most serious single threat to Khomeini's Islamic Republic. The attack on the Prime Minister's office confirmed that...
...Banisadr, forced out as President of Iran because he opposed the mullahs' attempts to impose a theocratic state. Banisadr, however, has never enjoyed a strong personal power base: his 75% landslide in the January 1980 presidential election resulted largely from his strong identification with Khomeini. Having relied on Rajavi to escape from Iran and subsequently forming an alliance with the Mujahedin leader, Banisadr may have compromised his independence, though he rejects that view. "In a struggle everyone is beholden to the others," he told TIME Paris Bureau Chief Jordan Bonfante. "I am beholden to the Mujahedin. They are beholden...
...oppose the Shah. By 1969 some members of the Mujahedin, organized in cells, were receiving military training from Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon and Jordan. From the start, the group integrated Islam into an ideology favoring a classless society-what one French analyst calls "Islamic Marxist sauce." In 1980, when Rajavi tried to run for President-his candidacy was vetoed by Khomeini-the Mujahedin platform focused on anticapitalist, anti-Western slogans. It demanded the nationalization of all foreign businesses run by Iranians and "continuation of the anti-imperialist struggle," especially against...
From his new base in France, Rajavi is now making statements designed to gain broader acceptance outside Iran. He says that he would govern with a national council including representatives of all the forces "who agree with our line of independence and freedom, except the allies of the Shah and Khomeini." Asked why his promises should be more credible than those of Khomeini, who also pledged free speech and a pluralist society during his exile in France, Rajavi answers: "We are not just a group of intellectuals without any responsibility. We have been a popular movement for 17 years...
...everyone is convinced that this tactic will bring down Khomeini or, if it does, that Rajavi will be the beneficiary. Rouhollah K. Ramazani, an Iran watcher at the University of Virginia, suggests that "Khomeini still has a tenacious hold on the people, especially the lower classes." French experts, who were among the first to predict the Shah's demise, contend that the Mujahedin may have suffered more at the Khomeini government's hands than they are willing to admit. Some Western intelligence sources doubt that the Mujahedin, though superbly organized, have as many followers as they claim. "They...