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TIME: Almanac 1993
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TIME Almanac 1993.iso
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031990
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0319007.000
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1992-08-28
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WORLD, Page 30Where's the Fire?
Lots of smoke but little action on releasing the hostages
"My feeling is that the issue of the hostages is moving
toward a solution," said Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani last week. With those words, Rafsanjani stoked the
rumor mill that has been working at full blast since late
February, when the Tehran Times called for the unconditional
release of the 18 Western hostages, eight of them Americans,
held in Lebanon for as long as five years. The day after the
editorial appeared, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the
spiritual leader of Hizballah, a Lebanese group that holds some
of the victims, added to the hopeful speculation by saying,
"We have to think of finding realistic and humanitarian means
to free the foreign hostages." After Rafsanjani's statement
last week, the Bush Administration cautiously allowed, "We're
encouraged by the comments."
While it is encouraging that Rafsanjani has publicly
expressed a desire for the hostages' release, Western
intelligence agencies have yet to detect any activity.
Rafsanjani's own goals seem plain. Recently, he has been
seeking to borrow as much as $27 billion from Western sources
to rebuild his country's economy, which needs money and
technology. He also aims to end Iran's diplomatic isolation
from both the West and his Arab neighbors. With those goals in
mind, he has apparently launched a hostage-release initiative
and is seeking maximum publicity so that even if his effort
fails, his good intentions are made known to the world.
Whatever Rafsanjani's intentions, it is Iran's radical
opposition, led by former Interior Minister Ali Akbar
Mohtashami, that maintains the closest ties with the hostage
takers -- and even Mohtashami has only limited sway over them.
Last week the Revolutionary Justice Organization, which has
three hostages, vowed, "There is no intention to release
hostages." Meanwhile, it was disclosed that last month
President Bush accepted a phone call from an impostor claiming
to be Rafsanjani. Though they do not know for sure, White House
officials think the hoax was perhaps perpetrated by
Mohtashami's faction to embarrass Rafsanjani.