Word: return
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...immediate issue remained the 49 hostages in Tehran. Concern about their fate far overshadowed any relief about the return of the 13 hostages?five white women and eight black men?who were freed by their captors and who made it home for Thanksgiving dinner. As the 13 stepped off the C-135 military jet that brought them into Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, dozens of relatives who had been flown there from all over the country rushed to embrace them. But the official welcoming could not be jubilant. Said Secretary of State Cyrus Vance: "Our relief that...
Khomeini's original threat against the 49 was conditional: "If Carter does not return the Shah, it is possible that the hostages may be put on trial," but his intentions seemed clear. The prisoners, Khomeini said, were not diplomats but people "whose acts of espionage have been proved on the basis of evidence." If the hostages are tried, he added, "Carter knows what will happen." Iran's Deputy Chief Islamic Prosecutor Hassan Ghaffarpour was explicit. If the hostages are found guilty of espionage, he said, they would be "executed by firing squad...
While the U.S. is determined not to hand over the Shah to the Khomeini regime, it would be happy to see him leave his Manhattan hospital to return to Mexico, or go to Egypt or Paris?almost anywhere. The Shah himself told ABC's Barbara Walters that though he was not "stupid" enough to go back to Iran, he hoped to leave the U.S. in two weeks...
Some face-saving formulas are conceivable. Rafsanjani, speaking to TIME's Van Voorst, suggested that the Iranians might settle for less than an outright return of the Shah...
...representatives of some non-aligned countries are exploring another possible compromise: the Shah leaves the U.S., and the U.N. grants Iran a chance to air its grievances against the Shah and begin some sort of international judicial proceedings to determine his guilt and whether he should be forced to return the millions he is said to have taken from Iran. Meanwhile, Khomeini "guarantees" release of the hostages, perhaps handing them over to some third country. The U.S. would insist on outright release of the hostages first, but once that is done it would have no objection to Iran's airing...