Trying to Tighten the Noose

By Marguerite Johnson

Iran softens on the hostages and Iraq's war machine inches on

"The entire world must know that Saddam's army has acted without mercy, without pity, like Hitler's army." With that fuming condemnation of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iran's Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Raja'i opened a diplomatic front in the Persian Gulf war last week by taking his country's case to the United Nations. Addressing a session of the Security Council, Raja'i charged that "the cruel and despotic regime of Iraq" has bombed schools and hospitals in "its killing of innocent people."

Raja'i, 47, a former math teacher who became a leading member of the ruling clergy-dominated Islamic Republic Party, was the first ranking Iranian leader to set foot in the U.S. since the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran last year. His diplomacy took a tantalizing turn Saturday, when he told reporters that a decision on the 52 American hostages was "not far away" --thus implying that a release was at least possible before the Nov. 4 elections, with all the impact that such a move would have on the outcome. Iran's demand that the U.S. apologize for supporting the late Shah, he said, had already been met "in practice." He added: "All it needs is probably to put something on paper." Raja'i was even more conciliatory when he spoke of the hostages' families. "I know how they suffer," he said. "When a person is kept against his will in a foreign country, the grief is much harder."

At the same time, Raja'i hinted that the U.S. Government might have to meet certain conditions to free the hostages. U.S. radar planes in Saudi Arabia, warships in the Persian Gulf and military aid to Jordan, he said, were "obstacles to a solution." This was a marked softening of his remarks the day before, when he accused Washington of using the radar planes to gather intelligence for Iraq.

While placatory on the hostages, Raja'i dismissed any possibility of a ceasefire in the war, repeating Iran's warning that it would not consider any cessation of hostilities so long as Iraqi troops remained on its soil. Still, his appearance at the U.N. could mean that Iran is finally edging out of its diplomatic shell. Some military and diplomatic observers spectulated that, for all its fierce military resistance, Iran might finally be beginning to hurt on the battlefield.

On the battlefronts, however, there was no evidence of waning enthusiasm. The initial assumption of many Western intelligence experts that the war would run out of steam within two or three weeks was being reappraised. Military analysts noted that neither side had yet committed all its weaponry and military resources. The bellicosity of both antagonists, along with an absence of common negotiating ground, now suggested that the war could drag on for months. Said a senior British diplomat: "Iraq can't bring Iran to its knees, and Iran won't negotiate under duress. That's the dilemma."

Iraqi forces inched forward in their effort to capture and isolate the Iranian province of Khuzistan, but the Iranians continued to stave off the Iraqis' superior firepower. As in the past, the Iraqis churned out premature claims of victory. But at week's end, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and military regulars were still repulsing Iraqi assaults aimed at capturing Dezful's oil-pumping station. To the south, 80 miles away at Ahwaz, Iranian artillery fire was keeping Iraqi troops on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

Though a breakthrough continued to elude them, Iraqi forces were tightening a noose around the ports of Khorramshahr and Abadan on the bank of the Shatt al Arab waterway. Buttressed by batteries of 130-mm artillery, an estimated 9,000 Iraqi infantrymen, using three pontoon bridges, succeeded in crossing the Karun River. Their military command declared it "Iraq's largest amphibious assault ever." From that bridgehead Iraqi tanks fanned southward to surround both Khorramshahr and Abadan. The Iranians charged that the Iraqis bombarded both cities with artillery and with surface-to-surface missiles. Eyewitnesses said the carnage among civilians and the damage to both cities was "appalling."

The Iraqi artillery barrages were primarily designed to drive out the civilian defenders who have backed up the Iranian armed forces with guerrilla operations. The bombardment, in fact, set off a mass exodus from the Khorramshahr-Abadan area. More than 300,000 people sought refuge in the small town of Shadegan, 20 miles to the northeast. Late in the week, Iraqi forces captured Abadan's radio station, which is almost two miles outside the city, but it was not immediately clear whether the Iraqis would choose to lay a prolonged siege around the burning city and thus spare themselves infantry casualties, or assault it directly. Iranian militiamen and Revolutionary Guards had dug trenches and barricaded buildings throughout Abadan in preparation for house-to-house combat. Proclaimed an Iranian military official: "At Khorramshahr and Abadan, Saddam Hussein is bleeding himself to death. Saddam will find out that he has wasted his armed forces on a mad gamble."

One of the strangest aspects of the war was the failure of either side to issue comprehensive casualty figures. But foreign observers judged the toll to be large. With most Iranian attacks aimed at military and industrial targets, civilian deaths in Iraq were probably lower than those in Iran, where Iraqi planes and artillery have indiscriminately bombarded residential areas. Tehran claimed that more than 130 schoolchildren were killed by Iraqi bombs in Kermanshah.

Iran's only offensive action was in the air. After a mysterious lapse of ten days, Iranian Phantom fighter-bombers struck industrial targets and oil installations deep inside Iraq. American-trained Iranian pilots seemed to be particularly adept at evading the Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missiles (SAMS). One successful U.S.-taught tactic: diving straight toward the oncoming missile, then veering off at the last instant.

There is some evidence that the Iranians may be receiving more spare parts for their equipment than the Iraqis. Iraq's airfields have remained closed to both civilian and military traffic, but Iran has managed to keep several of its airbases operating, including one at Tehran. The air shuttle between Tripoli and Tehran that Libya had organized to help resupply Iran appeared to have ended. The Iranians instead were continuing to use Chinese airspace to bring supplies from North Korea. To pick up necessary parts for their American-built planes and equipment, Iranian procurement agents were scouring the Far East for U.S. surplus items left over from the Viet Nam War. It was yet another bizarre touch in the twisted international texture of a strange and ominous conflict.

--By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by William Drozdiak/Bahrain and William Stewart/Basra

With reporting by William Drozdiak, William Stewart

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