Word: tehran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Christopher flew to Algeria to present the first specific American response to the four Khomeini conditions, which had been adopted by the Iranian parliament on Nov. 2. Algeria was the natural intermediary because it had been representing Iran's interests in the U.S. since the closing of Tehran's embassy in Washington in April 1980. Two weeks after the Christopher mission, Iran sent a message that showed some curiosity about the U.S. proposals. On Dec. 2, Christopher arrived in Algiers with added detail on the American position and suggested ways of solving the toughest issue: the frozen Iranian...
...Iranian reply this time was a stunner. "It was outrageous," bellowed one U.S. official. On Dec. 21, Tehran demanded the payment of $24 billion in cash and gold. That amount was the Iranian estimate of the value of the assets frozen by the U.S. Government, interest owed to Iran and the holdings of the late Shah's estate. American officials seriously considered breaking off the talks as hopeless. Instead, they decided to ignore the bizarre $24 billlion figure and to push ahead with the discussions. The Iranians never again mentioned the $24 billion demand...
...negotiations returned to reality on Jan. 6, when Iran sent the U.S. a list of 15 questions about a new American proposal that had been relayed to Tehran four days earlier. U.S. officials noticed that Iran for the first time was using not only the language of the U.S. draft proposal, but also the American numbers. They had quietly dropped their own estimates of frozen assets in American banks, for example, from $14 billion to less than $10 billion. Working through the night in Washington, State Department officials compiled a lengthy response that was forwarded to Algiers the next...
...Algerians did not send the message on to Tehran. They complained that it was too complicated for the Iranians, contending that even they could not understand it. The Algerian action was an incentive to Christopher to come back to Algiers because serious negotiations appeared about to start...
Christopher returned to the Algerian capital on Jan. 8 with a new dispatch for Tehran. After transmitting the message, he decided to stay an extra day or two just in case something might happen. It did. More questions arrived from Tehran on Jan. 10, and then the rush of negotiations continued unabated...