International Iran says Iraqi forces

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 6

International Iran says Iraqi forces

NZPA-Reuter London President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr of Iran has reported that Iraqi troops are repeating from the south-west-ern city of Khorramshahr, scene of bitter fighting between Iraqi and Iranian troops for the last several davs.

A Teheran Radio broadcast said that the President told the official Pars news agency that the Iraqis were in retreat though still shelling the area from their own side of the border some 16km away.

The radio, monitored by the 8.8. C., quoted President Bani-Sadr as saying that Iran had now reinforced artillery and defensive positions at the strategic port city which Teheran earlier reported to be completely controlled by Iranian troops. Reports " from Bagdad spoke of continued heavy fighting in Khorramshahr. Bagdad, too, had earlier said it was in control of the city.

A unilateral cease-fire by Iraq in the two-week-old war was still due to start yesterday, despite being rejected by the Iranian revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny on Saturday. The Ayatollah declared on national radio: “Our nation and armed forces will not rest until the final victory’ and achievement of revenge for the crimes of the criminal Baathist Party (of Iraq).” The Iraqi Defence Minister (Lieutenant-General Adnan Khairallah Talfah), announcing that Iraq’s offer of a

cease-fire from first light yesterday until Wednesday was still valid, said he did not believe the Iranians would stop fighting. “We think that the Iranians will refuse,” he said. “If they oblige us to resume the fighting, they will find that we will do so with the same strength as at the beginning.” General Talfah made it clear that Iraq was ready’ to wage a prolonged war of attrition when he said: “We are prepared for any’ war, short or long. The Army is able to go on fighting in the next stages of the war.”

Iran has said that-it will not talk peace until all Iraqi troops have left its territory. Iraq’s cease-fire is conditional on Iran stopping fighting and halting what the Minister called armed air reconnaissance.

Addressing a news conference in Bagdad, the Defence Minister said that Iraq did not consider the United States to be neutral in the conflict, because he said it had provided Iran with as much as $5O million worth of spare parts and ammunition.

He said the aid had been sent by Washington in an attempt to secure the release of the United States hostages in Iran, or to improve relations between the two countries.

General Talfah also criticised the recent delivery of American airborne radar stations to Saudi Arabia, which he described as foreign interference. “The United States is no longer neutral as far as we are concerned. The late measures show the United States takes the Iranian side,” The Minister also said Iraq believed Israeli planes had taken part in a raid against a nuclear plant in Bagdad last Tuesday. . . “We are quite certain Israeli fighters actually took part, to take advantage of the battle situation to hit the nuclear reactor,” he said. The allegation has been hotly denied by Israel. Iraqi ■ officials have said

nuclear facilities at the plant were not damaged in the raid, and that there had been no danger of a radiation leak.

General Talfah said his troops had captured Syrians and Libyans fighting on the Iranian side, and that the two countries had given Iran arms.

In Amman, diplomatic sources said there were' growing indications of behind-the-scenes support for Iraq from other Arab countries. Although Iran and Iraq are both Muslim, Iran’s population is mainly Persian and not Arab.

Only King Hussein of Jordan has come out openly as a backer of Bagdad, pledging military support if Iraq requested it. Diplomatic observers say other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait tend to side with Iraq because they are concerned about Iran’s repeated calls for spreading Teheran’s brand of Islamic revolution throughout the Arab world.

The “Guardian” in London, quoting Palestinian sources in Beirut, has reported that King Hussein has sent up to 5000 Jordanian troops to Iraq to carry out internal security duties and free Iraqi soldiers to fight against Iran. The United States has strongly urged Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States not to allow Iraq' to use their territory for launching- air

strikes against Iran, White House officials have said. The message was conveyed after Iraq moved some of its aircraft to several neighbouring and Gulf countries, the officials said. The “Wall Street Journal” said Iraqi planes had arrived in Saudi Arabia 10 days ago but were removed the next day’ after the American warning. The United States sent the airborne radar stations the day after that. . In Teheran, the Iranian President yesterday’ criticised the international community. contrasting the concern aroused by the issue of the American hostages held in' Iran for 11 months with what he called the silence of other countries about the “invasion” of Iran by Iraq. “Last night I talked about this case with Mr Kurt Waldheim (the United Nations Secretary-General) and I told him that you (other countries) made much noise about the spy hostages of America. Now you are so silent about such an aggression,” he said in an interview broadcast on the State radio.-

“One side is righteous because we have been invaded, and the other side is unrighteous. because it is an invader. This silence, in fact, is a kind of admitting the invasion and this is not something we will forget in the future,” he was quoted as saying.

Mr Bani-Sadr said the Iranian Foreign Ministry should prepare facilities for journalists “to see closely the crimes of the Baathist regime and to echo them on an international level.” Meanwhile, three French television journalists were arrested yesterday while filming near Teheran’s huge oil refinery. So far, one busload of foreign journalists has reached Ahwiaz on a trip to the battle area, but dozens of their colleagues who have travelled the dusty road to Teheran from Turkey have been faced with stony refusals for press cards and visa extensions leaving them the prospect of a long, hard ride back.