World Notes

Iran's retreat from the anti-American orthodoxy of the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini accelerated last week. At the opening session of an international oil conference in Isfahan, President Hashemi Rafsanjani called for increased economic and political cooperation with the West and better relations with Iran's gulf neighbors. The overture was fueled largely by the need on the part of Tehran for foreign help to rebuild after its debilitating eight-year war with Iraq, which ended in 1988, as well as for long-term, reliable customers for its oil. Last year Iran launched a five-year campaign to attract $27 billion in foreign investment. So far, France, Italy, Germany and Austria, among others, have extended Iran more than $12 billion in credits. The U.S., however, continues to hold $11 billion in frozen Iranian assets and to impose a partial ban on the purchase of Iranian crude oil for sale in the U.S.

The State Department once again insisted that to end its commercial and diplomatic isolation from the West, Iran must exert its influence to gain the release of the six American hostages thought to be held by pro-Iranian Shi'ite Muslims in Lebanon. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Maleki took an equally hard-nosed stance: although indicating that the ordeal of the hostages might end "soon," he repeated his country's long-standing demand that its funds in the U.S. be unfrozen.