Word: said
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...clear once again who was in charge. The victim this time was Foreign Minister Abol Hassan Banisadr, the bushy-mustached economist who had been in office just 18 days, and who had seemed to be relatively moderate, or at least flexible. He had tried to attend the U.N. debate. Said he: "We want to demonstrate how the U.S. ruled our nation during the Shah's regime." Despite such rhetoric, U.S. officials hoped that private talks in New York might make some progress. Banisadr also opposed any trial of the U.S. hostages. He told a delegation of Western ambassadors that...
Khomeini seems convinced that prolonging the crisis works to his advantage. Said a Western diplomat in Tehran: "He literally believes that he is forcing the U.S. to its knees, and at the same time rallying Islamic countries for an unprecedented reawakening. To achieve these objectives, the Imam is willing to practice the most brazen form of brinkmanship...
...them that "the honor of the country comes first, before the lives of the hostages." Johnston reported that Carter then warned darkly: "Simply by releasing the hostages the slate is not wiped clean." Some participants interpreted this as a threat of military action, but White House aides denied it. Said one: "The President was merely stating the obvious. Any fool knows that an incident like this will affect relationships after the hostages are released...
...President sternly accused Iran of violating standards of human behavior and international law in holding the hostages and warned of "grave consequences" if any are harmed. He vowed that the U.S. "will never yield to blackmail or international terrorism." Said he: "There are some conditions, prices, for the hostages that this country will not pay." Responding to a question about the debate that has already begun over whether he (hould have allowed the Shah to enter the U.S. in the first place, Carter stoutly declared that he had "no regrets and no apologies...
...President reserved his bitterest tones for the condition of the hostages, who he said were "bound and abused and hreatened," despite Iran's assurances of good treatment. In private, Carter used even stronger language.* He complained to a delegation of New England Democrats that the Iranian militants were brainwashing the hostages by isolating them from each other and telling them that they had been abandoned by the U.S. The President said that the hostages have not been allowed to bathe or change their clothes, that some have been punished for speaking and that others have been threatened at pistol point...