No More Mr. Nice Guy

Khomeini gets tough with the rising forces of opposition

"This country is halfway toward war," declared Iran's Defense Minister Taqi Riahi last week. So it seemed. Heavy fighting, by both the army and the "Islamic guard," whose loyalty is to the ruling clergy, raged in the Kurdish town of Saqqez as government forces tried to expel a band of 2,000 Kurdish rebels. Scattered skirmishes took place elsewhere in the region inhabited by 4 million Iranian Kurds, who for centuries have been seeking independence, or at least a measure of autonomy. After a tribunal ordered the execution of 36 Kurds for "counterrevolutionary crimes," a Kurdish political leader, Karim Hessami, warned the government: "From now on, for every Kurd executed, we shall punish one of the Islamic guards in our captivity."

Beset by troubles in other areas where Iran's restless ethnic and religious minorities live, the seven-month-old government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini is moving desperately to keep its grip over the chaotic country. One measure of its new-found realism was the disclosure last week that Tehran is negotiating with the U.S. for the delivery of at least part of the $5 billion in American arms and equipment that the Shah had ordered. Iran is still anxious to sell back to the U.S. the 78 advanced F-14 fighters that the Shah bought in the mid-1970s, but it is now in need of spare parts for its American equipment, as well as ammunition, new helicopters and artillery. At the time of their victory last February, the ayatullahs rejected all American influence. Now, they evidently feel the need of some U.S. military help to survive.

The Carter Administration's decision to sell 1.5 million bbl. of heating oil to Iran on an emergency basis drew some caustic criticism in the U.S., not only because of the coals-to-Newcastle nature of the transaction but because the U.S. itself is expected to be short of heating oil this winter. But the Administration, in defending the sale, pointed out that Iran needed the oil quickly because of sabotage on pipelines near the big Iranian refinery at Abadan. The White House also argued that the sale could have important advantages for the U.S. in paving a new relationship with post-Shah Iran.

Angered by the challenges to his authority, Khomeini lashed out in a speech to his followers in the holy city of Qum. In effect he declared: No more Mr. Nice Guy. His government had made a mistake, Khomeini said, in trying to be tolerant toward the dissident groups, especially leftists who encourage militancy among the minorities. "We knew they were non-Islamic, but they proved to be nonhuman." The Ayatullah also fumed at his appointed government's failure to rule effectively. Said he: "I shall come to Tehran and straighten things out in a revolutionary way if they don't shape up."

That seemed to be a clear call for a crackdown on the opposition, and the government took the cue. It immediately closed down 44 papers and magazines, and expelled five more Western correspondents (bringing to eleven the number deported thus far). In a particularly provocative move, it evicted a leftist Islamic group, the people's Mujahedin, from its headquarters in the former offices of the Shah's Pahlavi Foundation. Mujahedin leaders claimed Khomeini himself had assured them that they could keep their headquarters if they engaged only in normal political activity, but the authorities in Tehran did not budge.

In the meantime, the government closed down the offices of all but one opposition political party in Tehran. The exception was the National Front, the ineffectual old party of the late Premier Mohammed Mossadegh. The only party actually outlawed is the Kurdish Democratic Party, which is supporting the fight for Kurdish autonomy. But other parties will be either outlawed or kept under a tight rein. Among these is the pro-Moscow Tudeh (Communist) Party, which has followed the clergy's line so unashamedly that political observers in Tehran refer to the party's first secretary, Noureddin Kianuri, as the Ayatullah Kianuri. No matter. The Tudeh, like other "loyal non-Islamic parties," will be permitted to play only a "limited" role in the revolution.

The chief targets of the new measures, however, were the mutinous minority groups and their leftist allies. In another fiery speech, Khomeini said flatly: "If we had set up scaffolds in public squares and strung up these devils at the beginning of the revolution, we would have had none of these troubles." In ordering the army and his own Islamic guards to march to Kurdistan, he warned his military commanders: " You will meet revolutionary action yourselves if you fail to move into Kurdistan within 24 hours."

Khomeini had several motives in seeking to crush the Kurds. Most of all, he hopes to demonstrate the futility of intransigence to all the minority groups. Besides that, he wants to deprive the leftist insurgents of the haven that the Kurds have traditionally provided them. Finally, he is using the Kurdish challenge as a way of raising the spirits and fighting ability of the demoralized armed forces.

The exercise carries some risks. It is not likely to stop the fighting, and it is gradually turning the Kurdish rebels into accomplished guerrillas. Even more serious, from Khomeini's point of view, is the increased power and authority the fighting will give the military. The stronger the army the greater the chance of an eventual coup against the clerical establishment. Hence the rapid buildup of the Islamic guards, who so far have borne the brunt of the fighting in Kurdistan. They have also been active in Khuzistan, center of the all-important oil industry, where they have been trying with mixed success to keep the lid on an uprising by the region's 2 million Iranian Arabs. Sporadic violence, along with labor unrest and lack of trained technicians, has cut Iranian oil exports temporarily to below 1 million bbl. per day (vs. 2.9 million bbl. per day in mid-August). To appease workers, the government recently increased the minimum wage from $3 to $8 a day. As a result, an already staggering inflation rate of more than 40% is threatening to go completely out of control.

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