Ayatollah 100 feeble to follow events’

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 8

Ayatollah 100 feeble to follow events’

NZPA-Reuter New York The American magazine, “Newsweek,” reports that Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, has grown too feeble to understand complex issues and no longer involves himself in the details of the American hostage crisis. Quoting sources close to Iran’s ruling Revolutionary Council, the latest “Newsweek” says negotiators “find it impossible to

explain complex issues to the Ayatollah Khomeiny, who has grown increasingly feeble.” The sources said he no longer worked full time, because of poor health, “Newsweek” reports. It also says at least a dozen Iranian diplomats in the United States asked for postponements of President Carter’s expulsion order last week, and Mr Carter refused them all.

The President gave Iranian diplomats 36 hours to leave as part of new reprisals against Iran because of the continued detention of the American hostages. One diplomat said his wife was being treated for cancer, another said his 12-day-old child was too young to travel and two asked for political asylum, but Mr Carter turned down all the requests, according to “Newsweek.”