An Answer for Tehran

By Thomas A. Sancton

The U.S. responds to Iran's hostage demands as a stalled war drags on

"It's up to the Iranians." So said a visibly saddened President Carter last week at an impromptu press conference at the White House. It was his discouraging answer to a question about whether Tehran had reacted to a formal U.S. response to Iranian conditions for releasing the 52 American hostages. Two days earlier, a U.S. delegation, led by Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, had flown to Algiers with a carefully formulated written statement of the American position. Acting as go-betweens, Algerian officials received the document and delivered it to Tehran. At week's end the chaotic regime of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini was still mulling over its next move. Whatever that might be, there was little hope now that the hostages would be freed in the immediate future. At Wiesbaden, West Germany, staffers at the U.S. Air Force hospital relaxed their guard after weeks of preparing for the hostages' arrival. As the President ruefully put it: "I've had a timetable in mind for more than a year that never has been reached."

Though its exact contents remained secret, the U.S. message presumably contained a pledge of noninterference in Iranian affairs and agreement to unfreeze $13 billion in U.S.-held Iranian assets. That would satisfy two of the four demands issued on Nov. 2 by Iran's parliament, the Majlis. But as Christopher and his colleagues painstakingly explained to their Algerian hosts, constitutional and legal restraints would make it difficult for the Federal Government to carry out the other two demands: the cancellation of all U.S. claims against Iran and the return of the late Shah's wealth to Tehran. Washington policymakers made it clear that Christopher's message went as far as possible in meeting the Iranian terms within the bounds of the U.S. legal system and the national honor. Describing the U.S. response, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie said, "It's comprehensive, it's thoughtful, it's positive. So, the question is whether they are convinced that that's the limit beyond which we can't go."

The initial reaction of key Iranian officials was not encouraging. Ali Reza Nobari, the American-educated governor of Iran's central bank, described the American reply as "cool to us" and doubted that U.S. law was a real obstacle to satisfying all the demands. Ayatullah Seyyed Mohammed Beheshti, leader of the hard-lining Islamic Republican Party, threatened again that if the U.S. response was deemed unsatisfactory, the Majlis would have to decide whether to try the hostages as spies.

Few Iranian officials seemed to share President Abolhassan Banisadr's eagerness to settle the hostage crisis and get on with their desperate struggle against Iraq. From embattled Dezful in Khuzistan province, Banisadr said last week that the sooner the Americans were released, the quicker Iran could obtain foreign resources --presumably including U.S. military spare parts. Said he: "During a war, time is a decisive element."

As far as the war is concerned, time may now be on Iran's side. Iraqi hopes for a swift victory have dissolved with the season's first rainstorms. Artillery and armor encampments are digging in for a long winter siege as the dusty plain along the front lines becomes transformed into mud flats and marshes. Supply roads have been constructed to deliver fuel and equipment to Iraqi forces bogged down outside the Iranian towns of Dezful and Ahwaz.

Despite heavy casualties on both sides, the week's fighting produced no real change in the deadlocked contest. In the north, the Iraqi-occupied town of Qasr-e-Shirin was reportedly subjected to fierce Iranian counterattacks; Baghdad did not refute claims by Tehran radio that 350 Iraqi "soldiers were killed there last week. Along the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway, Iraqi forces in Khorramshahr have been plagued by sporadic sniper attacks. Some Iraqi soldiers succeeded in crossing the Karun River, but a final assault on the besieged refinery center of Abadan is still blocked by Iranian resistance. Tehran also claimed last week that Iraqi units had been driven several miles back from their bridgehead on the Bahmanshir River, east of Abadan.

Iranian jets were reported to have struck at targets in northern Iraq as well as the Persian Gulf port of Fao. One Iranian plane was shot down by the Iraqis over Kuwaiti territory after firing two rockets at a northern border post. Kuwait formally protested the incident, which marked the first time a neighboring country had been directly touched by the hostilities. King Khalid declared that "Saudi Arabia will come to Kuwait's aid against any danger it is exposed to."

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who apparently anticipated a quick and easy victory when his forces invaded Iran on Sept. 22, is now seeking to prepare his country for a long struggle. Saddam celebrated the Islamic new year last week by anointing Iraq's fight to regain the Shatt al Arab from Iran as "a holy war against treachery and injustice." He invited all patriotic Iraqis, including those over 65, to volunteer for military service and vowed to keep "twisting Iran's arm in order to wrench our rights."

Saddam also moved to shore up his forces in a more pragmatic way. For the second time since the war began, he sent Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz to Moscow to seek arms. The Soviets, despite a 1972 friendship treaty with Baghdad, have been reluctant to send military equipment to Iraq since the outbreak of hostilities. One reason for the foot dragging: Moscow's concern that both super powers remain neutral in the conflict. Some supplies continue to arrive from France, however.

While Iraq was beginning to feel an arms and ammunition pinch, Iran has been hard hit by fuel shortages. With most of its major refineries crippled or destroyed, Tehran is said to have lost as much as 75% of its normal oil production. Civilians have had to cope with rationing of gasoline, heating oil and electricity. Widespread hoarding has forced the government to begin rationing sugar and other staples.

Hopes for a diplomatic settlement fluttered ever so feebly last week. Tehran's Supreme Defense Council requested clarification about the details of a peace plan sponsored by seven Third World countries that it had previously rejected. The council also agreed to accept a visit this week from a United Nations peace delegation headed by former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme -- "provided he comes on a fact-finding mission only," said a Tehran spokesman.

But Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Raja'i offered what sounded like the definitive word, when at week's end he flatly declared that his government "will not accept any mediation and will not negotiate peace with Iraq." It was difficult to imagine what Palme -- or any mortal diplomat -- might accomplish under such circumstances.

-- By Thomas A. Sancton. Reported by William Drozdiak/Baghdad and Gregory Wierzynski/Washington

With reporting by William Drozdiak, Gregory Wierzynski

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