This Day In 1970's History: Sunday December 16, 1979
- Iran claimed a victory with the Shah's departure from the United States for Panama. The "victory" was claimed by Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh in an American television interview. He was often imprecise and it was not clear whether he was speaking for Ayatollah Khomeini. But the overall effect of his remarks was to give encouragement to the Carter administration in its hopes that a peaceful solution to the crisis over the hostages in Iran might be near.
There was no word from Iran's leader, who will decide whether the Shah's departure for Panama will be result in trial of the hostages. Ayatollah Khomeini was silent, and remarks from Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh were confusing, but a statement from the hostages' captors said "We declare that, in order to reveal the treacherous plots of the criminal United States and for its punishment, the hostages will be tried." The administration played its last card in its attempt to find another refuge for the Shah when it asked Panama's leader whether he would honor an offer last spring to give him asylum. Hamilton Jordan, the White House chief of staff, was assigned to fly to Panama to win agreement from Gen. Omar Torrijos. [New York Times]
- Iran's economy has been badly shaken since the revolution last winter. Iran's central bank estimates that the economy has contracted by 12 percent overall. This would be catastrophic in a Western industrialized nation, but if Iran stems its losses in production and jobs this year, many Iranians will regard it as a triumph. Businessmen and diplomats, however, believe further losses are ahead. [New York Times]
- Oil prices were raised sharply by Libya and Indonesia. Libya, a major supplier to the United States, increased the price of its light oil by $4 a barrel, to $30, retroactive to Nov. 1, its oil minister, Ezzedin Ali Mabruk, announced in Caracas, where members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries were gathering for a meeting starting Monday. Indonesia announced a price increase to $25.50 a barrel, a $2 raise, effective today. [New York Times]
- Reassessment of auto regulations is being made by the Carter administration to help the industry in the most unstable time in its history. Changes under consideration affect nearly every major aspect of government regulation in the last 15 years. [New York Times]
- A revolutionary theory predicts that all matter will eventually disappear. The hypothesis has caused widespread excitement among physicists, and large-scale experiments are being planned to test it. If the disintegration is observed, it would be a monumental discovery, supporting one or another of the "grand unification" theories that interrelate all the basic forces of nature, apart from gravity. [New York Times]
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