World Notes IRAN

Events in Iran are often fueled by forces that are not immediately apparent. Thus it was difficult to know quite what to make of the verbal missile fired last week by parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during a prayer session at Tehran University. Several "big American spies," he announced, had been arrested and would be punished for plotting to overthrow Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Although he did not name names, Rafsanjani said some of those detained were Iranian navy personnel who aided the U.S. when it was patrolling the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. He cited an incident in September 1987, when U.S. forces attacked and boarded the Iran Ajr as the ship was laying mines.

In Washington the Bush Administration cloaked its response in deliberately vague language. "My information is, we don't really know what they're talking about," said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater. Said former CIA Director Richard Helms, Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976: "If it's true, it's a shame they got caught." At the Brookings Institution, Middle East specialist Yahya Sadowski speculated that Rafsanjani might be using the cry of spies as a way to divert attention from his own political problems.