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    "localId": "23898412",
    "label": "Telegram From German Embassy, Tehran",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Telegram From German Embassy, Tehran",
    "description": "This document is a December 16, 1980 telegram from the German Embassy in Tehran regarding the Iran hostage situation.",
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        "Records of the Office of the National Security Advisor (Carter Administration)",
        "Zbigniew Brzezinski's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) President's Daily Brief Files"
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    "seq": 4,
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    "ocrText": "DECLASSIFIED\nLS No. 100614 - A\nPer; Rac Project\nBL\nESDN; NLC- -2-33-5-12-5\nGerman\nBY AGP NARA, DATE 7/14/2015\nTELEGRAM FROM GERMANS 12/16/80\nFrom Teheran\nNo. 1394 of December 16, 1980, 1:25 p.m. local time\nSubject: Hostage Problem\nRef.: db No. 1369 of December 9, 1980\nAlthough local government spokesmen have denied all\nreports that the hostages are to be released before Christ-\nmas, they do not comment negatively on the continuation of\nthe indirect negotiations. The most recent comment by the\nPrime Minister's office was that the American reaction to\nthe Iranian demands is \"basically positive\", but that further\nnegotiations concerning the details will be required.\nNabavi has promised the draft for the Iranian answer for the\nnext two days, but before it is presented to the Algerians,\nit will have to be submitted to Khomeini for approval.\nLocal observers, including the Algerians, consider the\nfact that the government is including Khomeini in the hostage\nnegotiations before the time for the final decision has come\nas a sign of increasing difficulties which the government and\nleading political clerics like Beheshti and Rafsanjani are\nencountering from radical forces in their own party. While\nthe former would probably actually like to conclude the hos-\ntage exchange out of rational considerations of the increasingly\nacute shortages of spare parts and foreign currency, the doubts\nabout a release of the hostages are increasing in the IRP and\namong the clergy, fed by Islamic extremists and leftists,\nsince in those circles, the continuing violent domestic dis-\n-2-\nputes are laid to an American conspiracy with the Iranian\nliberals to destroy the Islamic Republic.\nWhat is also remarkable is that Bani Sadr, in yesterday's\npress interview, made some remarks distancing himself from\nthe hostage problem and no longer showing any personal com-\nmitment. He limited himself to platitudes like the remark\nthat the release of the hostages is up to the U.S. alone.\nIf the U.S. were to accept the Iranian demands, the problem\ncould be solvęd immediately. However, he said, he did not be-\nlieve that the Iranian people would accept an offer lacking\neven one cent of the total Iranian assets in the United States.\nIn his opinion, the solution is being held up in the United\nStates by forces behind the politicians, by which he probably\nmeans banks or \"monopolistic capitalists\".\nThese, now rare, remarks by Bani Sadr on the hostage\nproblem are just one more thing that shows that this problem\nhas now been taken over completely by Prime Minister Rajai,\nhis close collaborators, and those behind him, and that Bani\nSadr remains largely excluded. In fact, doubts have been\nvoiced here in various places that the entire liberal oppo-\nsition is not overly interested in the solution of the hostage\nproblem at this point and by this regime, because it would\nenable the latter to survive the war, cover up economic\ndifficulties, and become internationally more respectable.\nThe American ministers, who have arrived in Teheran, have\nnot yet been allowed to visit the hostages, and generally\nfind themselves facing only closed doors. The Prime Minister's\noffice said that the presence of the ministers has nothing\n0\n-3- -\nwhatsoever to do with the release of the hostages. The ministers'\nrequest for a meeting with Prime Minister Rajai was denied.\nThe Swiss ambassador to Teheran will try to get permission\nfor P. Mulligan and Rev. Bernbeck, who are residents of Teheran,\nto visit the hostages for Christmas.\nStrenziok"
}