Word: weeks
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...major difficulty for the Administration was that throughout the week various Iranian authorities kept changing the terms of the bargaining. On Tuesday Acting Foreign Minister Abol Hassan Banisadr sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. The letter implied that the hostages could be released if the U.S. agreed to turn over the Shah's personal fortune to Iran and "at least accept the investigation of the guilt of the former Shah and its consequences." The letter omitted any specific demand for the Shah's return. Some officials saw the beginnings of a compromise here, but Banisadr said later...
...exile in Cuernavaca. It had been presumed for days that having the Shah leave the U.S. would be a useful first step in resolving the plight of the hostages. But typical of the unpredictability of events was an announcement by the students in the embassy late in the week, that the flight of the Shah to any third country could result in "harsher decisions being taken against the hostages...
...Tehran, the political situation deteriorated markedly as the week passed. The rumors about Khomeini's health started after a Thursday meeting in Qum. "I'm not feeling well," confessed the Ayatullah to his followers. He then launched into a feverish attack on the U.S. Said he: "The U.S. has grabbed our money just like thieves. We should not fall for their propaganda." An aide reported that Khomeini was suffering from a flu virus communicated to him by "various visitors who have come to Qum in that condition." Said one observer: "The Imam has never sounded this bad before...
...Half were in the ambassador's residence, half in two yellow bungalows near by. The treatment of the hostages was believed to have improved somewhat, though some of the men still had their hands tied. The women were guarded by chador-clad girls clutching automatic rifles. Early in the week the captors released a taped message from one of the Marine prisoners, Kevin Hermening, complaining that he didn't like "being a pawn used in a game" and urging the President to place a higher priority on the lives of the hostages than on the Shah...
...Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" The Arabic pronouncement that "God is great" sustained the Iranian revolutionaries as they marched through the streets of Tehran in demonstrations against the Shah. The invocation was heard again as students attacked the U.S. embassy, and as mobs last week marched about the captured compound, demanding death for the hostages...