‘Soviet build-up of forces on Iranian border’

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 8

‘Soviet build-up of forces on Iranian border’

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States National Security Adviser, Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski, says there have been “credible reports” that the Soviet Union- has moved military forces to the Trans Caucasus area north of Iran.

Mr Brzezinski, interviewed on United States television, said the reported activity was reminiscent of the Soviet military build-up last December north of Afghanistan which preceded the Russian intervention in that country.

Mr Brzezinski gave no figures on the number of troops involved. He cited this and other factors in suggesting that Iran’s failure to resolve the crisis in which American diplomats are being held hostage at the United States Embassy, in Teheran was producing “enormous damage” to Iran’s national interests. ■

The “danger of partition” in Iran existed once again because the hostage crisis i had increasingly isolated | Iran from the rest of the world, Mr Brzezinski said. He noted that the United 'States had acted once before tohelp preserve Iran’s territorial integrity. The reference was to the World War Two era when Soviet forces occupied the northern sector of Iran and Stayed on for a year after the end of the war. The So-

viets finally withdrew their troops from Iran only under heavy diplomatic pressure from the United States and other countries. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is poised to deal with the threat of wide-scale acts of foreign-directed ter-| rorism within the United States which could be trig-' gered by an American military strike against Iran, according to its director, Mr William Webster.’ “We have been watchful for several months because of information and allegations that there were for* eign-directed Iranian operatives in this country,” Mr Webster said yesterday in an interview.

So far, he added, the F. 8.1. had not identified any Iranian agents seeking to commit acts of terrorism and sabotage or to assassinate Government leaders. However, on a smaller scale, the bureau “has stopped a few" Iranian gun-running operations in the Virgin Islands, Baltimore, and Detroit. Mr Webster said there had been no discussion within the Government of employing F. 8.1. agents to round up and intern the tens of thousands of Iranian aliens living in America, in the event of an armed clash between : the two nations or a declaration of war. “We do not expect to see any massive activity of that kind,” he: said. I.