U.S. was warned

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 8

U.S. was warned

1 NZPA-Reuter Teheran ; The United States Embassy in Teheran warned the I State Department in Septem- ! ber that admitting the [deposed Shah into the ’ United States would prompt adverse reactions in Iran, according to a secret telegram released yesterday by the students occupying the embassy. The cable, considered authentic by Western diplomats in Teheran was sent to the State Department by the charge d’affaires, Mr Bruce Laingen, on September 30. The embassy was stormed !on November 4 by Muslim students demanding [the extradition of the deposed Shah to Iran to face trial ; for a long list of crimes he [is alleged to have committed with the help of his powerful secret police, Savak,

The cable quoted Mr Lain[gen as saying: “I cannot suggest that there has been [ any significant change as yet in the kind of official and public reaction to the Shah entering the United States that would differ from the assessment I gave you in late July . . . “The constitutional timetable has slipped, and a new government is now unlikely to be installed before the lend of this year. Our own relationship is improving but only slowly and it is not yet of the substance that would weather very well the impact of the Shah entering the United States.” The students and many other Iranians do not believe that the Shah, now being treated for cancer in New York, is really ill. They cite documents found at the embassy that suggest that the United States Government had been planning all along to admit the Shah, who entered the United States in October from exile in Mexico.