IRAN: IRAN'S LEADERS ATTACKS EAST AND WEST AS WELL AS RELEASE PRISONERS TO MARK IRANIAN NEW YEAR.

Record ID: 1050093

  • Title: IRAN: IRAN'S LEADERS ATTACKS EAST AND WEST AS WELL AS RELEASE PRISONERS TO MARK IRANIAN NEW YEAR.
  • Date: 22nd March 1980
  • Summary: 1. GV: Crowds mobbing Ayatollah Khomeini's son, Ahmad Khomeini 0.13 2. GV: President Carter placard and television camera 0.22 3. GV ZOOM TO CU, Ayatollah's son speaking to crowd in Farsi 0.46 4. GV: Crowd responding. 0.51 5. GV: President Bani-Sadr arriving at rally in car then walking through crowd with bodyguard. (2 shots) 1.07 6.
  • Embargoed: 5th April 1980 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEHERAN, IRAN
  • Country: Iran
  • Reuters ID: LVA1PAEBN28QU3HRSAX8Y0MT6FI0
  • Story Text:Friday (21 March) saw the beginning of a new year according to the Persian Calendar and to mark the occasion Iran's religious and political leaders launched a stinging attack on both the east and the West. The Ayatollah Khomeini denounced what he called the brutal intervention in Afghanistan by Soviet "looters" and "occupiers". He then bracketed the Soviet Union with the United States and Israel as a threat to Iran's safety.

    SYNOPSIS: The Ayatollah's new years message was delivered to the people of Iran at a rally held at Teheran's Behesht Zahra cemetery and although it focused heavily on the Soviet Union, the crowd had not forgotten United States President Jimmy Carter. The speech was an important one for the religious leader but was actually delivered by his son Ahmad Khomeini. The speech outlined a state policy for Iran based on the re-establishment of law and order and the continuation of an aggressive campaign against the super-powers. It said that Iran was in conflict with international communism to the same extent as it was with western exploitation.

    "We should know", it explained" that the danger of communist power is not less than that of the United States".

    The Ayatollah's theme was also taken up by the next speaker, Iran's President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr.

    He said Iran could not endure the presence of Soviet forces in Iran's neighbourhood. He told the crowd that an initiative by him to have a five-man international commission go to Afghanistan to investigate the extent of foreign intervention had been rejected by Moscow and he called on the Russians to get out of the country immediately.

    Meanwhile more than 160 minor offenders have walked out of Teheran's Evin prison, free, under a amnesty approved by the Ayatollah Khomeini as part of the New Year celebration. Lists of those to be released were posted outside the prison as friends and relatives waited.

    Many of those released had been government officials in the former Shah's regime or had in some way co-operated with the Shah's government. In granting the amnesty the Ayatollah declared that all agents of the former government who had not committed murder, torture or embezzlement were forgiven and the case of others would be reviewed. Reports from Teheran indicate that people who had worked in the former government but had not been arrested following the Ayatollah's revolution may also be guaranteed continued freedom.

    Prominent centrist politicians have been arguing over the past year that a feeling of insecurity amongst government employees who had worked under the Shah was crippling the new administration.
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