Word: tehran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...claims against Iran and disposition of the late Shah's wealth-if it can be found -that should be solvable. But Iran's high-handed demand that the U.S. deposit $24 billion in Algeria raised anew the question of whether the often irrational and always faction-torn Tehran government can summon the political will to free the captives. After so many disappointments, few Americans will believe that it can until all the hostages are actually on a plane that has cleared Iranian airspace...
...second annual Christmas scenario for exhibiting the American hostages was cruelly strung out by Tehran's outrageous propagandists. After keeping the 52 hostages hidden from world view for eight months, Iran's squabbling authorities announced early in the week that not even a holiday visit by non-Iranian Christian clergymen would be permitted this year, a move that fed fears in the U.S. that some of the Americans were not well-or not even alive. For the first time the State Department said it had information that some of the hostages were not getting "adequate medical attention...
Perhaps because of this, Tehran permitted a tantalizing peek into the captives' lives. On Christmas Eve, Monsignor Annibale Bugnini, who represents the Vatican as the papal nuncio in Iran, was allowed to visit the Americans. He was taken blindfolded in a car on a ride so short that he assumed he was still in Tehran. So great is the mistrust in the city that even the revolutionary guards who rode along in the car also were blindfolded as they approached the secret destination. For nearly four hours, the monsignor chatted, sang and prayed with some...
...Next day Tehran TV beamed fuller films back to the U.S. via satellite. This time, ten more hostages were shown. Eight more, seen only in photographs released by Pars, the Iranian news agency, brought the total shown to 34. One photo was of U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Bruce Laingen, who has been held at the foreign ministry in Tehran. Some clearly had lost weight, but most looked reasonably healthy. And now their voices could be heard. Some sat beside the monsignor at a long table in a sparsely decorated-and thus unidentifiable-room. Only a Christmas tree brightened...
...where-and how-were the other hostages? After the Tehran films had been transmitted, the Iranians televised a Tehran press conference with Algerian Ambassador Abdelkarim Gheraieb. His words were the most comforting yet. He said he and another Algerian diplomat had seen all 52 of the hostages and "found them all in good health." In Washington, the State Department revealed that it was to receive a more detailed report from the Ambassador when he arrived in the U.S. over the weekend. On a holiday vacation in Plains, Ga., President Carter said of the hostages: "They all seem quite well...