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The ambassadors decided the proper approach was to appeal to Khaalis' faith. To brush up on the Koran, Ghorbal phoned his political counselor, who supplied him with some apt quotes. Said Ghorbal: "We decided to use the Koran to impress on him that Allah orders us to be merciful."
By Wednesday evening, Yaqub-Kahn made the first of many lengthy phone calls to Khaalis. He listened patiently to the terrorist's outpouring of grievances, then made a plea for compassion. Khaalis turned out to know his Koran. "Don't try to teach me," he said. "I know it better than you." But the Koranic verses began to move Khaalis. Said one: "O, ye who believe, forbid not to yourselves the good things that God hath made lawful for you and do not transgress the limits; verily, God loveth not the transgressors." Another was particularly effective: "And let not the hatred of some people in shutting you out of the Sacred Mosque lead you into transgression and hostility on your part; help ye one another in righteousness and piety, but judge ye not one another in sin and rancor." Says Yaqub-Khan: "The sentiments in that passage provided the central theme pervading all the talks."
At sunrise, Yaqub-Khan was on the phone again: "My comrade, it is the beginning of a new day," he said to Khaalis. "I would like you, my brother, to join in a prayer to Allah that it will be a day of compassion, honor and bravery." Khaalis protested that the place where he was appeared "unclean." This remark convinced the negotiators that Khaalis was a devout Muslim who would pray only in clean surroundings, as Islamic tradition prescribes. Now there was hope, for a source of leverage existed—the compassion cited in the Koran.
Through the day there were more phone calls, more verses. Khaalis seemed to be listening. Shortly after 6 p.m. Ambassador Ghorbal took the riskiest step. "Let us come to you, dear brother," he said, "and sit down and talk at a table of peace." Khaalis agreed.
There was no way to tell if the meeting would be a sitdown or a shootout when the group assembled at 8:10 p.m. in the lobby of the B'nai B'rith Building. With the ambassadors were Chiefs Cullinane and Rabe, and the police commander, Joseph O'Brien, who had investigated the murder of Khaalis' children and was trusted by Khaalis.
Armed with a knife, Khaalis emerged from an elevator. He shook hands, received the traditional Muslim hug from the ambassadors, and sat down. Not until the meeting passed its 15-minute mark did the police begin to relax. Speaking in a low, soothing voice, Zahedi brought up the deaths of Khaalis' children, and suddenly the terrorist broke into tears. Then Zahedi returned to the Koran. "You could see a rapport building," recalls Ghorbal. "Trust and confidence were sinking in." Finally after two hours, Khaalis blurted out what was most on his mind: he did not want to go to jail, he wanted to go home.