Word: tehran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...countries to end all hostilities on Aug. 20. As evidence of its goodwill, Iraq announced that the fighting would stop, and Iran issued a cease-fire order. One day later, however, the truce threatened to falter as charges were exchanged. Baghdad contended that Iran was still shelling Iraqi forces. Tehran charged that Baghdad was still using poison gas to dislodge Kurdish separatists from a mountain stronghold in the Erbil province of northeastern Iraq. Iran claimed that the two-week-old offensive had already injured 63 civilians in three villages and forced the evacuation of two other towns...
Frustrated were the peacemakers, especially when the warring parties were Iran and Iraq. Baghdad insisted on direct talks with Tehran before a cease-fire; Iran was holding out for a truce. But at week's end, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein signaled his willingness to accept a cease-fire, provided that talks followed. There was no immediate response from Tehran...
...sides to get there. In the wake of Iran's surprise announcement two weeks ago that it would agree to a cease-fire, Iraq embarked on a campaign designed to maximize its position in a postwar era. By attempting to gain more leverage in negotiations, however, Baghdad risked encouraging Tehran to return...
Whatever combination of forces was at work, they came to a head on July 16. That evening, according to U.S. intelligence sources, there was a meeting in Tehran of senior political officials, including Montazeri, Rafsanjani, Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi and Ahmed Khomeini, the Ayatullah's eldest son. With Montazeri providing crucial support to Rafsanjani, his rival, the group decided to recommend that the elder Khomeini agree to the cease-fire. The next day they convened again and received what Rafsanjani described as a "historic and important decision of the Imam," presumably similar to the message later read on Iranian...
...Tehran's announcement was welcomed nearly everywhere in the Middle East. In Egypt, which has sold more than $1 billion in armaments to Iraq in the course of the war, President Hosni Mubarak cautiously expressed hope that "this is not some kind of maneuver." Syria, which because of a long history of rivalry with Iraq chose to back Iran, professed to welcome the "wise decision of the Iranian leadership...