Fearful oil men pull out of Iran

Press, 10 November 1978, Page 6

Fearful oil men pull out of Iran

NZPA-Reuter Teheran I Foreign oil workers are .pulling out of Iran, making j resumption of full production difficult even after the ! country’s oil strike ends, in- : dustry sources in Bahrain (have said. The sources say oil companies which depend on Iranian supplies are worried that even if the strike ends, full production could not be resumed for five to six I weeks. I One important reason is ■the exodus of foreign oil workers who fear that occasional verbal abuse of foreigners might turn to violence. The strikers list the expulsion of foreign experts among the political aims of their action.

i Foreign contractors are pulling their employees out of Iran as fast as possible. One American company chartered three planes during the last week to evacuat its workers and their families from Ahwaz in south Iran, the sources say. The strike by the 37,000 workers, now in its eighth day, is costing the economy about SUS6O million a day in crude-oil exports.

The Shah of Iran has ordered a probe into his own family’s wealth in an effort to show he sincerely wants to appease public unrest against his rule.

Two of the Shah’s closest aides have already been arrested by martial-law authorities and now the monarch has appointed a special committee led by a judge to investigate the royal wealth. The committee must report within two months and an announcement said that if any wealth or property had been acquired illegally, it would be returned to the real owners.

Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Prime Minister for most of rhe last 13 years, was the latest important detainee under the martial-law reguations. Mr Hoveyda, who is 59, was taken from his home in Teheran on Wednesday evening The former Prime Minister was held under a regulation providing for indefinite arrest of any suspect without trial. It was the same rule under which another longtime close aide of the Shah, rhe former secret-police chief. Nematollah Nassiri, was detained. Mr Hoveyda has been

blamed by Opposition leaders for much of the dissatisfaction that fuelled the latest hostility to the Shah’s Administration.

i The probe ordered by the i Shah applies to his own im- ■ mense wealth, to the assets of Empress Farah, to the Shah’s brothers and sisters, and to their families, palace sources said.

About 1 a.m. yesterday troops arrested Sajjid Rizvi, correspondent of the American news agency United Press International, a U.P.I. colleague reported. No reason was given for his arrest. Earlier, a spokesman for the imperial palace in Teheran denied rumours that an attempt had been made on the life of the Shah. Rumours circulated in American stock exchanges that a Shot had been fired unsuccessfully at the Shah. A military-enforced calm descended on Teheran yesterday as armed troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers guarded key areas of the city and the outskirts of Teheran’s giant bazaar. The military Government of General - Gholam Reza Azi hari has added five more i Ministers to its 10-member Cabinet and released five newspaper editors held since Sunday night. The capital’s newspapers refused to publish yesterday under self-censorship guidelines laid down by the military Government on MonIday. The journalists union I said it would instruct members to return to work only if censorship was lifted. In an attempt to clear up the confusion surrounding the death of the retired Air Force General, Ali Mohammed Khademi, the head (of Iranair, the Government i said an investigative committee concluded he had (committed suicide. I The Government said General Khademi shot himself, after he was informed military police were on their way to his home in a Teheran suburb to arrest him. Members of General Khademi’s family maintain he was shot by unidentified youths. In Rome, unidentified persons fire-bombed three stores selling Persian carpets 1 causing damage of around 100 M lire (about $152,800).

The police linked the attacks to Leftist extremist groups opposed to the policy of the Shah.