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Reports that the pressures stemming from the Iran-Iraq war and the U.S. policy of isolating Islamic Iran have laid the basis for Iran's new diplomatic initiatives. Problems created by the nation's international isolation; Infighting in the battle to succeed Iran's leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; Desperation of Iran for arms, money, and international support it had previously denounced; Overtures of Iran to start diplomatic relation with the U.S.

The article focuses on the possible repercussions of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran by radicals. It highlights the prediction of some of Middle East experts that Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's outrageous violation of international custom would brand him as a pariah in the Islamic World. It states that majority of Khomeini's neighboring rulers disapprove the embassy invasion and holding of diplomatic hostages, fearing that this kind of revolution could take root in their nations, especially Saudi Arabia. It comments that the collapse of Iran and the decline of the U.S. influence in the Middle East will trigger the Soviets to gain access to the Persian Gulf for their enlarged navy

The article discusses political and social conditions in Iran following the death of leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Emphasis is given to topics such as a fatwa and death threat issued against author Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses," constitutional changes to judicial authority and executive power, and foreign relations with Iraq, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.