Word: tehran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...about oil and terrorism, rolled up the welcome mat. Despite entreaties by the Rockefellers, who handled the fallen Shah's finances and provided him with a live-in public relations man, and Henry Kissinger, President Jimmy Carter kept the door shut. This position hardened after the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun and the hostages taken in November...
Western diplomats have privately expressed hope that Iran will exert its leverage within Hizballah for further hostage releases, especially now that Tehran is seeking to emerge from diplomatic isolation and establish new ties with the West. But apparently that decision is not entirely to the liking of one high-ranking Iranian, namely Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iranians, he said in a written message last week, must continue to "use their oppressor- burning flames against both the criminal Soviet Union and the world- devouring United States," looking "neither east nor west" for their future. His tone was hardly that of someone contemplating...
...back terrorists, even though that policy may result in dragging out the captivity of the hostages for agonizing months. Accounts differ as to how much control Iran has over the Muslim extremists in Lebanon. West German experience indicates that it is strong but not absolute; Bonn officials hint that Tehran had to exert heavy pressure for months on the terrorists to get them to let Cordes...
...concessions policy, however, if interpreted literally, would leave an American negotiator nothing to do but continually demand the hostages' unconditional release. In fact, few nations have been that inflexible in such talks. Says Warren Christopher, who helped negotiate the 1981 release of the American hostages held in the Tehran embassy: "The essence of the matter is whether you make a concession that might imply you'd do it again and that encourages subsequent hostage taking." Payment of ransom, whether in cash or weapons and however disguised, does precisely that. On the other hand, a one- shot concession that...
Both steps could be justified in the absence of any hostage negotiations if Iran, in return, would slacken its intense hostility to the West. At best, the release of the hostages could be presented as an almost incidental part of a general Washington-Tehran rapprochement or even as a major concession by the Iranians, agreed to as the inescapable price of smoother relations with the West...