237. Paper Prepared in the Department of State1
Afternoon Report from Iran
I. Cottam-Ghotbzadeh Conversation: (1530) Cottam found Ghotbzadeh very depressed and reluctant to go into details on the telephone about the Revolutionary Council meeting. He said he was aware it was a horrible setback but he had not yet given up hope. He would go tomorrow morning to see the Imam to get a reversal of the ruling of the Council so that the transfer could go on as planned.
Ghotbzadeh said that at the critical moment several members of the Council backed away from their prior commitment. When Cottam pressed him as to who or why, all Ghotbzadeh could say was politics. Cottam had the impression that if Ghotbzadeh could not succeed in persuading the Imam to change his position, he would resign.
II. Bourguet-Precht Conversation: (1600) Bourguet had had a long conversation with Villalon who told him the Council met to consider the various assurances the U.S. had provided as well as a memo Villalon had written. All of the documentation was considered satisfactory and sufficient by the Council and everyone was in agreement for the transfer to take place on Saturday.2 The Council designated Bani-Sadr and Ghotbzadeh to go to the Imam for his final blessing. For reasons that are unclear Beheshti raised objections and Bani-Sadr hesitated to show firmness.
Bourguet said that he, Villalon and Ghotbzadeh felt that it was necessary for the U.S. to send a strong message to Bani-Sadr with a copy to Ghotbzadeh advising them, in a non-threatening way, that the U.S. would take firm measures if the transfer was not accomplished by a specific day. Bourguet suggested that we explain our efforts to understand the difficult political situation in Iran and to assist Bani-Sadr in dealing with that situation. He further suggested that we might want to list the specific measures we had in mind. Only by bringing home to Bani-Sadr our determination to move with concrete measures would we convince Bani-Sadr that we are not a “paper tiger” and that we meant what we said.