Word: tehran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Iranian embassy in Paris was surrounded by police last week, and soon the Iranian government retaliated by cordoning off the French embassy in Tehran in a confrontation that Paris newspapers dubbed the "battle of the embassies." At the center of the controversy was Wadid Gordji, 34, an interpreter at the Iranian embassy. French authorities, who believe he is actually a high-ranking Iranian intelligence official, recently tried to question him about a rash of / terrorist bombings in Paris last fall. At the time, the French assumed the attacks were the work of a Lebanese clan seeking the freedom...
...charge d'affaires last week gave an angry press conference -- with Gordji as his interpreter. French officials vowed to take a hard line on the affair. But with six French hostages believed to be held by pro-Iranian factions in Lebanon -- and the 1979-81 U.S. embassy siege in Tehran still in the public mind -- France is, as one official conceded, "at a distinct disadvantage...
North also stood to benefit from Hakim's generosity. On May 20, 1986, a few days before North and other U.S. representatives flew to Tehran, Hakim established the Button account. (The name Belly Button, Hakim said, was the result of a joke about North. He did not elaborate.) Hakim told the congressional committees that the $200,000 was a "death benefit" for North's wife and four children. Knowing that U.S. officials are forbidden by law to accept outside contributions, Hakim says he did not inform North of the account...
Though North returned safely from Tehran, the Button account remained open. Last fall, Hakim claims, he attempted to get some of the money to North's wife Betsy. Hakim's financial adviser, Willard Zucker, met with "Mrs. Belly Button" in Philadelphia and told her that an anonymous admirer of her husband's "wishes to help out with the university and educational expenses of the children." Zucker and Betsy North discussed an abortive plan to funnel money to the Norths through their relatives...
While Iran has so far refrained from firing on American vessels in the gulf, Tehran vowed to continue shooting at Kuwaiti tankers, regardless of the flag they fly. Since September the Iranians have attacked 29 ships in the gulf, 25 of them serving Kuwait. In a meeting with foreign journalists, the President denied that he was "daring" the Khomeini regime to open fire. But when asked how the U.S. would react, Reagan replied, "I think it's far better if the Iranians go to bed every night wondering what we might do than us telling them in advance...