Fueling Hatred in Iran
GLASS, ANDREW J.
A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Fueling Hatred in Iran BY ANDREW J. GLASS TEHERAN Few Americans come to this bustling, traffic-choked capital of 11 million people, where gas sells for 12 cents a gallon....
...newspaper editors...
...Now the mullahs have fallen some $8 billion in arrears on their short-term debt...
...Older women sometimes grasp the neckline in their teeth to partially hide their faces...
...Most observers here predict that Rafsanjani will be gone when his term expires in 1996, if not sooner...
...Instead of stars, nine white skulls lie scattered in the field of blue...
...Asked if an election of this kind might not also be appropriate for the Kurds?spread over four nations, including Iran —Noori said: "Absolutely no analogy exists between the Kurds and the Palestinians...
...Recently creditors have begun a bailout...
...Like Health Minister Ali Marandi, he is an American-trained pediatrician, and at least seven other Iranian Cabinet members hold an advanced U.S...
...Velayati was one of those who in 1979 stormed the U.S...
...Then the Jews can continue to live there—as a minority...
...nest of spies," as the Embassy—now a school for young Revolutionary Guards—was called...
...In all probability, his replacement will be Majlis Speaker Noori...
...Marg bar Amrika" (Death to America) is the chant of the tens of thousands of Islamic faithful gathered for Friday noon prayers at Teheran University...
...Western influences manifest themselves in other ways as well...
...Teheran values them at $ 11 billion, Washington at $1 billion...
...assets, yet to be released...
...Realizing that the ruling mullahs were losing their political legitimacy, he took a leaf from the Shah and attempted to improve the material lot of his people...
...Beside his 10-year-old son, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati squats on a luscious Persian rug in the first row of the throng...
...The visiting journalist can't escape the impression that he would be more welcome here if he shifted careers and went into the oil business...
...We think it will not be in our interest...
...The result is a non-dialogue of the deaf...
...Embassy held 52 staff members for 444 days...
...The United States, meanwhile, is viewed with a blend of fanaticism, frustration and fear...
...But neither the "radical" clerics nor their rivals, the "moderates" on domestic issues, appear ready to budge on this front...
...This caused us to lose our trust in them...
...We showed our good will by helping to secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon, but Washington did not keep its promise of releasing our frozen assets...
...Between 1989 and 1992 trade rose 14-fold...
...Since the Islamic Revolution, Western bankers with an eye on huge oil reserves have loaned the mullahs upwards of $30 billion...
...There should be an election after the [Palestinian] refugees return...
...During that siege President Jimmy Carter froze Iran's U.S...
...But once he is alongside it the picture changes...
...It is presumed that President Bill Clinton spends some time each day hatching anti-Iranian plots...
...Tens of millions more, watching on TV, hear the white-turbaned prayer leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Kashani, intone: "From the arrogant powers' fear of Islam's grandeur stem all of the conspiracies being hatched against Muslims...
...Minimum regulation headwear is a large black scarf...
...In any case, Rafsanjani has a greater preoccupation at the moment...
...The Revolutionary Guards assume you are a spy to begin with...
...These days, some young women bend the rules by pushing the scarves as far back as they dare to expose a pompadour, and a few use heavy makeup...
...No public contact between the sexes is permitted—not even shaking hands—and married couples are not excepted...
...Five years after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, chief prophet of the Iranian Revolution, his successors continue to impose a stern view of the Koran on their 62 million subjects...
...Otherwise, every female body is completely cloaked in the shapeless, oversized, usually black chador...
...At each citation the all-male assembly responds, "Marg bar Amrika...
...Much of the money went to fuel their war with Iraq...
...The Israelis occupied the house...
...Teheran is fuming because U.S...
...On a rather different level, Boeing is trying to sell 20 of its 737-model jetliners to Iran for about $750 million...
...The Revolutionary government rejects a long list of U.S...
...They should leave it and return the land...
...In the current tolerant climate, Western-style white wedding dresses fill the windows of stores along Ferdowsi Street, a shopping area just north of the teeming main bazaar...
...carrying a shortwave radio, a no-no under their rules, does nothing to allay suspicions...
...others feature boldly plunging necklines...
...Satellite dishes, for example, are condoned at present in Teheran, but they must be hidden in air-conditioning ducts...
...The Iranians have taken their search for fresh capital to the halls of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund...
...Their decision has infuriated the Clinton Administration...
...Although they are barred from importing Iranian crude to the U.S., they remain free to sell it in Europe and Japan...
...oil giants buy what adds up to roughly a quarter of Iran's oil exports—meaning the U.S...
...In public, whether indoors or out, females in this country above the age of 12, including foreign visitors, must cover up from head to foot...
...customs agents have repeatedly mistreated its officials visiting America for international sessions...
...The group is known as "the California Mafia," because so many of them studied there...
...His ambitious program of market reforms failed, however, and he is being held accountable for a horrendous economic crisis that has further eroded fidelity to the Islamic regime...
...As we see the priorities of the Iranian government, every extra dollar or rial that they get will go to...
...What happened in South Africa should happen in Palestine," he added...
...The bankers are betting that slumping oil prices will recover by then...
...Few female drivers are to be seen amid the frantic traffic...
...Speaking in Farsi, he lists the places where he claims Muslims are being "oppressed by the arrogant powers": "Bosnia, Palestine, Tajikistan, Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan...
...Some are adorned with pearls...
...Currently, six U.S...
...The trade embargo against Iran is a oneway affair: While imports are banned in the U.S., some $80 million in American exports (yes, there is Coca-Cola) arrives here annually...
...Iran asserts that U.S...
...We have talked very firmly and repeatedly with our major allies...
...officials in nearly a decade—that is, not since former Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North clandestinely sought its help in securing the release of American hostages in Lebanon, thereby triggering the Iran-contra scandal...
...They stopped coming 15 years ago when the Shah fled his Peacock Throne and Islamic militants who seized the U.S...
...In Teheran's multicolored buses, women ride segregated in the rear...
...the Iranian Parliament, at a recent meeting with a dozen touring U.S...
...about the desirability of restraining credits to Iran," says Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Robert Pelletreau...
...Outrage over the Dulles incident has not made life any easier for the rare American reporter who arrives these days at Teheran's Mehrabad Airport, with its Far-si Coca-Cola signs...
...So it startles a visitor from Washington driving on a busy downtown artery to see up ahead an American flag painted on the full length of a nine-story office building...
...Gaza-Jericho is a one-sided 'solution' that serves only the interests of the Israelis," said Nategh Noori, Speaker of Andrew J. Glass, a longtime contributor, heads the Cox Washington bureau...
...trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction...
...And naturally, the religious police who report to the mullahs must be paid off...
...To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it's deja vu all over again...
...But Pelletreau ducks questions about the role American oil firms play in Iran...
...officials say they are open to a high-level "dialogue" with Teheran as a means of lessening friction...
...grievances, starting with Iran's adamant opposition to the Arab-Israeli peace process and its staunch support for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon...
...customs officials recently stopped two of its diplomats at Washington's Dulles Airport, examined their suitcases and took their pictures...
...Death to USA" reads a legend in large letters near the roof...
...U.S...
...The envoys were headed to a meeting at the World Bank...
...Behind closed doors it's a different tale...
...And each red stripe dissolves near the street in a whirling bomb...
...We have ample reason to distrust the Americans," insists moderate President Hashemi Rafsanjani when the U.S...
...The chadors quickly come off...
...Unlike North Korea and Cuba, countries also at serious odds with Washington, Iran has had no direct contact with U.S...
...These dresses are destined for private wear...
...The hang-up back in Washington, which must approve the sale, is not so much politics as it is cash: Iran doesn't have that sort of money...
...In Washington's view, the generous terms will allow Iran to rearm, and it will use its newfound military muscle to force weak Arab neighbors along the Persian Gulf to jack up oil prices—or else...
...Well-off Iranian kids aren't prevented from watching MTV on their parents' satellite sets...
...has replaced Japan as Iran's single biggest customer...
...Following Germany's lead, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark have all agreed to spread repayments over four years, after a two-year grace period, at 6 per cent annual interest...
...degree...
...willingness to talk is brought up...
...Young people clad in jeans and sneakers behave no differently than their American contemporaries...
...A hard-liner, Noori would no doubt clamp down on the small measure of pragmatic freedom that has lately allowed middle-class Iranians to do as they please —so long as they do it behind closed doors...
Vol. 77 • July 1994 • No. 7
