IRAN WARNS ARABS ON SUPPORT OF IRAQ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650034-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: March 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650034-1
WASHINGTON POST
13 M.zrch 1986
Iran Warns Arabs
On Support of Iraq
U.S. General Tours Persian Gulf Area
By Richard Homan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Iran, reportedly strengthening its
hold on two widely separated por-
tions of Iraqi border territory,
warned Arab states of the Persian
Gulf yesterday to end their support
for Baghdad or become the target
of Iran's "military option."
The stepped-up warning from
Iran came a day after an ominous
protest march in Tehran by about
2,000 students protesting the pol-
icies of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in
the 51/2-year-old war between Iran
and Iraq and followed a weekend
statement by President Ali Kha-
menei cautioning Arab and western
states, including France, against
aiding Baghdad.
As Persian Gulf tension in-
creased, the American general re-
sponsible for possible U.S. Army
operations there, Lt. Gen. Theo-
dore G. Jenes Jr., held talks that
Army officials at Fort McPherson,
Ga., where Jenes is based, called
"routine in nature."
Jenes, commander of the Army
component of the U.S. Central
Command, conferred in Abu Dhabi
yesterday with the United Arab
Emirates chief of staff after visiting
Qatar for what were officially de-
scribed there as "friendly talks,"
Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
Officials at Fort McPherson said
Jenes was "traveling with a small
official party" on a trip that gives
him "an opportunity to meet with
U.S. civilian and military officials
and foreign counterparts." They
would give no details of his meet-
ings or itinerary nor say when the
trip had been arranged.
Kamal Kharrazi, chief of Iran's
War Information Headquarters, is-
sued the warning to Arabian Pen-
insula states in a meeting with jour-
nalists in Tehran, Reuter reported.
"Our present policy is to per-
suade the supporters of IIragi Pres-
ident) Saddam Hussein that it is in
the interest of peace and the region
to give up supporting Saddam and
let him fall," Kharrazi said.
"We would like to solve our prob-
lems in the region through diplo-
matic channels. This we can do for only a
limited period. If it fails we shall naturally
choose the military option," he added.
Since beginning its current offensives
against Iraq a month ago, Iran has also ap-
plied increasing pressure on the oil-rich,
conservative Arabian Peninsula states. In
the past five years, these countries-fear-
ing a militarily strong Iran-have given
Baghdad billions of dollars, as well as logis-
tical and political support.
Khamenei, at Friday prayers in a leading
Tehran mosque last week, condemned the
Gulf Cooperation Council-the grouping of
Arab states, under Saudi Arabia's- leader-
ship-for the "unstinting support it has giv-
en to the Iraqi regime."
Referring to what he said were reports
that France might increase its naval pres-
ence in the gulf, Khamenei warned Paris not
to "threaten us in the Persian Gulf' and said
that, if necessary, Iran would strike back.
In the fighting yesterday, there were
contradictory claims from both sides that
could not be confirmed independently.
Iran claimed that its forces have dug in
on Iraq's Faw Peninsula, at the head of the
Persian Gulf, and 220 miles to the north,
expanded their hold on a mountainous,
largely Kurdish border area, turning back a
counterattack by Iraq, United Press Inter-
national reported from Tehran.
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials said their forces
were making progress in an all-out campaign
to drive Iranian invasion forces from the Faw
Peninsula, and they said Iraqi warplanes had
bombed Iran's oil pipeline terminal at
Ganaveh, on the eastern coast of the gulf,
Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
A western source with access to satellite
reconnaissance otos of the southern
fighting front said yesterday that the Iraqi
Army, despite ve rain weather that has
hampered use of its artillery and air sup-
port, was ig-al-511ildup a ui u of forces
south of Basra. Washington Post correspon-
dent Loren Jenkins renortedJLQMJbMe.
But this source described Iraqi forces as
still about 10 miles from Faw and only
"inching" toward it, apparently trying to
avoid heavy casualties and waiting for bet-
ter weather.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650034-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650034-1
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Kharrazi said that in the month-long of-
fensives, Iran has captured 488 square
miles of Iraqi territory and "destroyed"
17,000 to 18,000 Iraqi troops-casualty
figures disputed by Iraq and considered ex-
aggerated by western observers.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International ac-
cused Iraq of widespread human rights vi-
olations, including arrests of approximately
300 children last fall-and the torture and
killing of some of them-in Sulaimaniyeh,
near the site of Iran's current offensive in
the Kurdish region.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650034-1