Confusion in Teheran as Khomeiny delays return

Press, 26 January 1979, Page 1

Confusion in Teheran as Khomeiny delays return

By R. W. APPLE, jun., of the “New York Times,” through NZPA

NZPA Teheran The Iranian Prime Minister (Dr Baktiar) offered last evening to resign and let the Iranian people decide whether they wanted a Monarchy or a republic if in return Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny would agree to delay his return to Iran and make other concessions.

In a surprise move, the ayatollah has agreed to delay his return until Sunday, according to a high Government source.

However, in a move that appeared to undercut the peace offer before the ayatollah could respond, the National Security Council of Iran ordered the closing of Teheran’s international airport until Sunday. The ayatollah had planned to return from a 14-year selfexile today. The Iran State radio said in a midnight broadcast that the airport had been ordered closed because of the three-week-old strike of air traffic controllers and ground personnel. Officials of international airlines' were notified and cancelled all scheduled flights. It was the second time in less than 24 hours that the airport had been closed, and it climaxed a day of contradictory developments.

The airport had closed and then reopened on Tuesday morning, giving rise to speculation that the Government intended to block the ayatollah’s return.

However, highly placed Government ” sources assured correspondents that there was no such intention, and Dr Baktiar said on television that the ayatollah was free to return. No Government officials were available to comment on the about-face by the Security Council, which included the Cabinet and several of Iran’s senior military officers. The apparent policy contradictions may have been caused by a power struggle among rival groups. The ayatollah, who has come to be regarded as the symbol of the Iranian revolution, has refused for years to compromise; some of his associates said he would risk losing his following if he appeared to be striking a bargain.

Dr Baktiar’s dramatic offer apparently was made in a letter from the Prime Minister that was carried to Paris by a special envoy. He asked the Muslim leader to remain in France for three more weeks and to abandon his plan for a provisional Islamic Government.

Negotiating from an embattled position, Dr Baktiar said that he would give up his insistence on strict constitutional procedure. If the ayatollah agreed to his terms. Government sources said, Dr Baktiar would announce

within four months elections for a constituent assembly, which would choose between the republic demanded by the ayatollah and the evolving constitutional Monarchy favoured by Dr Baktiar. In Washington a Congressional committee has saiJ that the American intelligence community and the Carter Administration policy-makers both shared the blame for the failure to perceive the depth of the crisis in Iran, and to forecast that it would lead to the Shah’s departure. The committee said that “a warning failure” in the policy-makers meant that attention was not drawn

forcefully to Iran until last October, by which time it had become nearly impossible for the United States to do anything to alter events. Britain’s airlift evacuation of Westerners — including New Zealanders — from the Iranian oil town of Ahwaz went ahead as planned yesterday. Two Royal Air Force Hercules transport aircraft made one return journey each from Bahrain in the Persian Gulf to Ahwaz, in south-west Iran near the border with Iraq. No details of the three New Zealanders believed to have been part of the evacuation were available.

Scamp, an Old English sheepdog, must be one of the busiest mothers in Christchurch: she has 12 hungry mouths to feed. Five days ago Scamp, which is owned by Mrs Dale Curry, of Hornby, had eight pups. Yesterday her brood was increased by the arrival of four abandoned German shepherd pups.

The five-day-old German shepherds, their eyes still closed were left at the Waimairi County Council yards wrapped in an old blanket. Mr F. Grimes, an inspector for the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the abandoning of the pups was the worse example of cruelty to animals he had seen.

Scamp, which has taken to the abandoned puppies as if they w'ere her own, will look after them until the S.P.C.A. can find them a home.