Bush Calls on Iran for Release of Hostages : Says ‘They Know What to Do’; 8 Die in Mourning Crush

President Bush today called on the new Iranian government to help release American hostages if it wants improved relations with the United States.

At a televised news conference in Washington, Bush was asked about Iran’s new government following the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Bush said it is “hard to predict” if there will be change under the leadership of Khomeini’s appointed successor, President Ali Khamenei.

“I would simply repeat what I said on January 20th,” Bush said, referring to his inaugural address. “There is a way for a relationship with the United States to improve--and that is for a release of the American hostages.”

Nine Americans are believed to be hostages in Lebanon, held by factions suspected of close ties with Iran. They include Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, who has been held the longest, abducted on March 16, 1985.

The United States broke ties with Iran after Khomeini came to power in 1979 and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized, with 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.

Asked if he is going to make any new overtures to Iran, Bush said brusquely, “They know what they need to do. They have been a terrorist state. As soon as we see some movement away from repression and extremism, we will review our relationship.”

Millions in Mourning

In Tehran, millions of mourners today flooded into a square where Khomeini’s body lay, causing a stampede the official news agency said killed eight people and injured at least 500.

The Islamic Republic News Agency said in addition to those killed and injured in the stampede outside Mosalla Mosque, scores of people were rendered unconscious as temperatures soared to 100.

State television showed victims being carried out of the square as crowds scrambled to get closer to the air-conditioned cubicle where Khomeini’s shrouded body lay on a glass-covered bier.

Television cameras zoomed in on a bearded young man cooling mourners with a water hose.

Khomeini, 86, died Saturday of a heart attack, 12 days after intestinal surgery, leaving the country gripped by its worst political crisis since the revolution that catapulted the Muslim cleric to power in 1979.

Muslims today beat on their breasts and heads in a traditional Shiite sign of mourning and screamed “Sorrow, sorrow is this day . . . Khomeini the idol smasher is with God today!”

Khomeini’s only son, Ahmad, read over Tehran Radio the first pages of his father’s political testament, which is believed to contain guidelines on how the Islamic Republic should be governed. The section broadcast warned against U.S. plots and called for unity, but it made no reference to the problem of succession.