Word: rafsanjani
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, meanwhile, had his own reasons for promoting the release of Western hostages. The pragmatic Rafsanjani regards the hostages as relics of an era no longer relevant to his country's problems. Iran, which wields much more influence than Hizballah, desperately needs Western credits, trade and technology to rebuild after its devastating eight-year war with Iraq, which ended in 1988. Rafsanjani, who knows improved relations with the West hinge on the happy resolution of the hostage drama, undoubtedly ordered or at least pressed for the release of McCarthy and Tracy. He may also have...
...Rafsanjani is also feeling pressure from Syria, which has a huge stake in the pending peace conference. Iran opposed Syria's acceptance of Secretary of State James Baker's peace proposals. But that displeasure did not prevent a visit last week to Damascus by Iranian Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri, who almost certainly had a hand in McCarthy's release. How, then, to explain Leyraud's subsequent abduction? "Rafsanjani may be in the driver's seat," says Sir John Moberly, a former British ambassador to both Iraq and Jordan, "but there are quite a few backseat drivers...
...delay the release of the hostages until after the election? For how long did U.S. officials secretly help supply weapons to Iran? Were they also helping the Iraqis to illegally acquire missile parts and chemical weapons? If they were willing, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani could probably answer; if they were still alive, former CIA Director William Casey, Israeli counterterrorism expert Amiram Nir and Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini could...
Iran's retreat from the anti-American orthodoxy of the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini accelerated last week. At the opening session of an international oil conference in Isfahan, President Hashemi Rafsanjani called for increased economic and political cooperation with the West and better relations with Iran's gulf neighbors. The overture was fueled largely by the need on the part of Tehran for foreign help to rebuild after its debilitating eight-year war with Iraq, which ended in 1988, as well as for long-term, reliable customers for its oil. Last year Iran launched a five-year campaign to attract...
Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful Shi'ite literary critic who upheld a death sentence against Salman Rushdie for The Satanic Verses, wants to be a best-selling author himself. Rafsanjani's co-author is offering the 400-page manuscript for Our Revolution: The Ideology Behind the Movement to U.S. publishing houses. Excerpts from the work show that the Ayatullah Khomeini's political heir still has a jaundiced view of the Great Satan. "Our real desire, from the beginning, was to humiliate the United States throughout the world," writes Rafsanjani. Moreover, Westerners "are members of the school...