In an exclusive interview with Khabar Online, Dr Ali Shams-Ardakani, former Iranian envoy to the United Nations and ambassador to Kuwait, stressed that as the opinion polls indicated that Ronald Reagan could win the presidential election, Carter began taking possible measures to free the 52 American hostages before his presidential term finished and therefore guarantee the second term in office.
"I travelled to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and to submit a petition to convict Iraq of illegal invasion of Iran. As under the Charter of the UN it was illegal to launch a war to handle the political issues between governments," Shams-Ardakani said.
He finally read the petition during his address to the UN assembly, which ended in a bitter dispute with the then Iraqi foreign minister Sadoon Hammadi, who received constant applause from Kuwait's envoy Yacoub Bishara. The diplomatic dispute was covered by several media outlets, senior economist also said.
"In a letter to Tehran, I told Mr Broujerdi, Imam Khomeini's son-in-law who was a deputy at Foreign Ministry, that I could use from my relationship with Andrew Young, whom I knew from the time I was student in the US. I said Young was an anti-war activist and could help us in calling Iraq as an aggressor and proving such issue at the UN. I received confirmation from Tehran and as Iran's UN envoy I called him. Young, who served as US ambassador to the UN under Carter administration, together with Jesse Jackson, the black leader of anti-racism movement, came to Iran's bureau at the UN," he added.
"He brought an agreement which included 14 terms, through which the United States officially recognized the Islamic republic and the two countries could resolve the political issues. We sent the agreement to Tehran."
"… Tehran approved the text, but we asked for more advantages, through which the residents of both countries could not have any claim against the governments... I also said the agreement must be accredited by the White House to prove Carter's confirmation and that the President should repeat a secret code in his speech. He called the White House and then asked us what code Carter should say," Shams-Ardakani declared.
"I said Carter must say "The Iraqis are aggressors." But Young said that Carter would not accept to repeat such phrase as it contained a political stance. I told him that we only want Carter to say such phrase and we don’t need him to say "my breakfast was warm." Young then called an unknown person and said Carter accepted to repeat the code."
"There was only a month to the US election and Reagan, who was the Republican candidate, was in the lead due to his aggressive remarks over Islamic Republic. Only the release of American hostages could help Carter in winning the election and therefore the US support of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could diminish."
"A day after, Carter arrived in Detroit airport to continue his election campaign in Michigan. The journalists asked him
"What is your opinion about the development in the Middle East?" and by the time the development in the Middle East referred to Arab or Palestine war with Israel and not Iran-Iraq war. But Carter, who just wanted to repeat the code, said: "It is obvious that Iraq is aggressor."
"He had repeated the code we wanted. At the same night Young called me to ask if we made sure, and I told him that I hear the code while I was watching TV. I then called Tehran to inform the authorities Carter repeated our code. The day after Tehran said the then prime minister Ali Rajaie and a delegation would travel to the US in the coming days," Shams-Ardakani added.
However, the agreement was not signed and the hostages were released on January 20, 1981, right after the then president Reagan sworn in.