Word: shahs
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Despite these concessions, there was some question whether Sharif-Emami's government could continue because it does not have the support or participation of opposition members. Last week the Shah reportedly consulted with Ali Amini, 71, an outspoken critic of his policies in the past who served as Premier during a similar period of unrest in 1961-62. Karim Sanjabi, leader of the opposition National Front, a loose alignment that includes a broad spectrum of political groups ranging from conservative to leftist, flew to Paris to talk with Ayatullah Khomeini, the dissident mullah who is spiritual leader of Iran...
...still very visible in the capital; 100,000 troops patrol the streets, and tanks and armored cars make Tehran's notorious traffic jams worse than ever. Despite almost daily demonstrations by protesters, the generals-at least until the weekend Shootout at Tehran University -had obeyed the Shah's command to avoid the sort of bloody showdown that followed the imposition of martial law in twelve cities on Sept. 8. One inhibiting factor may be the top echelon's doubt that rank-and-file troops would support their commanders if ordered to attack protesters with bullets and bayonets...
...Washington, the latest turmoil was viewed as, in the words of one Iranian specialist, "very dangerous." From Jimmy Carter on down, the Administration is staunchly committed to the Shah. "Our friendship and our alliance with Iran is one of the important bases on which our entire foreign policy depends," the President told Crown Prince Reza, a student at the U.S. Air Force Academy, when he visited the White House on his 18th birthday last week. "We're thankful for his move toward democracy," Carter added, referring to the Shah's political reforms. "We know it is opposed...
...major reason for backing the Shah is the absence of credible alternatives. "If you look at them," says one Administration analyst, "they're more frightening than the crisis itself. There is no opposition capable of taking over." In this expert's view, the best-known moderate critics of the Shah are old-line nationalists who would probably be unacceptable to left-wing groups. Beyond that, the opposition includes a motley collection of small groups, ranging from the extreme left to the extreme right, that have nothing in common except the desire to bring down the Shah...
...have no evidence. This isn't Afghanistan [where a military coup brought a pro-Moscow regime to power]. They don't want to contest us on this issue." The Russians, in fact, were suffering more immediately from the oilworkers' strike than the West was. While the Shah's allies worried about the potential future loss of oil exports, a vital pipeline that supplies 10 billion cubic meters per year of Iranian natural gas to military installations and industries in the southern part of the U.S.S.R. was abruptly closed down...