He was elected first President of Iran's Islamic Republic last January with 76% of the votea seemingly invincible mandate. He had the confidence and blessing of the all-powerful Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, who bestowed upon him command of the armed forces. Confident and ebullient, he promised to rebuild Iran's battered economy in accordance with the Islamic socialist theories he had developed as a doctoral student at the Sorbonne. Yet somehow Abolhassan Banisadr, 46, has become the saddest political casualty of the Islamic Republic; his clerical enemies in the Revolutionary Council have reduced him to...
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