Hopes for the Hostages

IRAN

Banisadr is off to a fast start as President

Hopes soared last week that an end to the three-month ordeal of the 50 American hostages in Tehran might be in sight. The State Department denied a Kuwaiti newspaper report that the release of the hostages was "imminent," but one Western diplomat in Tehran cautiously admitted that there were some "positive signs." In response, the U.S. announced a delay in the imposition of economic sanctions against Iran.

Undoubtedly the most positive of the signs was the take-charge attitude of President Abolhassan Banisadr, 47, who took the oath of office last week after having been elected with an impressive 76% of the vote. When the militants who are holding the U.S. embassy published documents supposedly Unking Iran's National Guidance Minister Nasser Minachi with the CIA, Banisadr denounced the militants as "lawless dictators" and criticized the national radio and television network for spreading their propaganda. Then he ordered the release from prison of Minachi, who is regarded as a man with impeccable revolutionary credentials.

The incident unleashed a wave of criticism against the student militants, whose popularity seems to be ebbing. Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh warned that the government would use force, if necessary, to enforce its decision if and when it agrees to free the hostages. Early in the week, the militants called off a demonstration that had been scheduled to coincide with Banisadr's swearing-in ceremony, apparently because they feared the populace would not turn out. The number of militants present at the U.S. embassy was reported to have dropped from around 400 as of last month to 50.

Banisadr also won a battle against the ambitious mullahs who resented the rise of a layman to a position of such importance in the revolution. They tried to postpone the oath-taking ceremony until after elections to the National Assembly next month. But Iran's strongman, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, who has been hospitalized for three weeks following a heart attack, ordered the ceremony to proceed immediately. Khomeini himself administered the oath of office to Banisadr at the Heart Hospital in north Tehran.

The next day Banisadr, with Khomeini's blessing, was also appointed chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Council. He easily won the council's support for a plan to create an international commission of inquiry for hearing Iran's grievances against the deposed Shah and his U.S. supporters. The plan could become the first step toward gaining the release of the American hostages.

What happens next will depend, most of all, on the wishes of the ailing Khomeini, who has apparently been doing some soul searching from his hospital bed. Last week, mindful of reports that Soviet troop strength was increasing along the border with Iran, he denounced the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan for the first time and pledged support to the Afghan insurgents. More important, he has bestowed his blessing on Banisadr in a manner that could not be mistaken. In this, he reflected the changing political mood of the country itself. Most Iranians seem ready to put the excesses of the revolution behind them. To the extent that Banisadr represents this changing mood, Khomeini is not likely to oppose him.

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