Kissinger ‘urged Shah to arrest opponents’

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 8

Kissinger ‘urged Shah to arrest opponents’

NZPA-Reuter Teheran [ Iran has published evidence accusing the former United States Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger of having encouraged the Shah to arrest political opponents. As a big anti-American demonstration began in Teheran, the ■ newspaper, “Ayandegan,” published what it said! was the text of a report to the Shah last November by his Ambassador to Washington (Mr Ardeshir Zahedi). The envoy, the Shah’s former son-in-law, said Dr Kissinger advised the monarch to rearrest released political prisoners.

“You must strongly resist these patriotic people, and I even believe that all prisoners freed should be rearrested,” Mr Zahedi quoted Dr Kissinger as telling him in a telephone conversation. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “As far as we are aware, the published excerpts from the report are genuine.” “Ayandegan” said a copy of the secret report, which showed close United States involvement in dealing with the political crisis , that led

[to the Shah’s exile, had been! found in Iran’s Washington! Embassy. Mr Shariyar Rouhani, a son-in-law of the Foreign Minister (Mr Ibrahim Yazdi), was put in charge of the Washington Embassy after last February’s revolution, and he immediately claimed he had found incriminating evidence against prominent Americans. The report was published as the Islamic Republican Party — formed by supporters of the revolutionary leader. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny — staged a demonstration in protest against the United States Senate’s condemnation of political executions in Iran. The pro-Soviet Tudeh (Communist) Party threw its support behind the antiAmerican rally, but. the rest of the Left called for a march on the United States Embassy. In his report, quoted by “Ayandegan,” Mr Zahedi wrote about the reaction of the Carter Administration and prominent Americans to the Shah’s decision to appoint a military Government I

under General Gholam Reza Azhari last November 6.

Mr Zahedi quoted President Carter’s National Secur- ; ity Adviser, Mr Zbigniew Brezinsky, as telling the Shah not to set any date for a return to civilian rule. The Azhari military Government fell on December 31. “Brezinsky called me on th; telephone and said this was a good and timely decision (to name a military Government) .. . Brezinsky said: “I am very happy about this. I have been supporting this policy all along, but some people were opposed to it. Since this is good news, I will immediately call the President to tell him.” Mr Zahedi wrote. In London, the “Jewish Chronicle” reported yesterday that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt would offer asylum to'the exiled Shah. The President was quoted as saying in an interview in Alexandria on Tuesday, “I shall be giving him asylum because this is the moral dutv of Egypt.” The Shah is now living in the Bahamas, having stayed briefly in Egypt and Morocco after fleeing Iran in I January.