Word: shah
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Other Iranians in exile scorned the idea of joining him in a united front against Khomeini. In particular, Banisadr was spurned by Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister appointed by the Shah, who had also taken refuge in Paris. Bakhtiar argued, correctly, that Banisadr had helped build the Islamic Republic of Iran. Said the former Prime Minister: "What is happening to Banisadr is a direct result of what he himself created...
...Banisadr is depending for most of his support on the Mujahedin, who spent years battling the Shah's secret police. More to the point, the Mujahedin want a modern Islamic state, a fact that undercuts the appeal of the mullahs and their obsession with the past. The guerrillas are estimated to have as many as 100,000 people under arms, with several hundred thousand additional sympathizers. The clerics have accused the Mujahedin of a rash of devastating bombings, including the June 28 explosion at Islamic Republic Party headquarters that may have killed as many as 150 people...
Both men proclaim faith in an Iranian republic that will be Islamic and democratic. They hope to galvanize an anti-Khomeini crusade like the Ayatullah's final campaign against the Shah. "We can overthrow Khomeini within a few months," boasts Rajavi...
...others are not convinced. "Many Iranian technocrats, doctors and engineers fled Iran because they were scared of fanatics like the Mujahedin, not because they supported the Shah," says Ali Shahin Fatimi, editor of an Iranian newsletter in Paris. Other Iranian intellectuals in exile criticize Banisadr's arrogance and political naivete. Says one: "If he could not do anything as President, and if he cannot organize a revolt from within Tehran itself, what can Banisadr possibly do from Paris?" It is a question that the mullahs were also asking themselves last week in Tehran. -By William Drozdiak...
Banisadr, in fact, has told his supporters that he is not in favor of a military coup d'état because he believes the populace must take the initiative in acting against the regime. He envisions a mounting wave of mass demonstrations like those that eventually toppled the Shah...