Tilt to Moscow

Trampling on Old Glory

The anti-American demonstration had been meticulously orchestrated. On the third anniversary of the downfall of Shah Mohammed Reza Palahvi, about 30,000 Iranians converged on Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square shouting imprecations against the U.S. At the same time, units of Islamic Guards and militia marched upon outsized American flags that had been laid along their route. Then, as the televised parade approached the dignitaries who had assembled in the square, a Soviet flag was mysteriously thrown down in front of the marchers. Before the troops could be halted and a startled official could retrieve it, the red banner was trampled upon as well. Hojjatoleslam Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, later apologized for the desecration of the Soviet emblem, saying it had all been "a plot to sabotage the revolution's diplomacy."

The official reaction to that bizarre incident was symptomatic of the increasingly pro-Moscow tilt of the Islamic revolutionary government. Last week Iran and the Soviet Union concluded an agreement for "accelerated" economic and political cooperation. Under the new arrangement, the Soviets will finish constructing a hydroelectric dam and two power plants in Iran that they had begun building under the Shah. Iranian Energy Minister Hassan Ghafurifard declared in Moscow that the Soviet Union is a "friendly country," a telling contrast to the epithet "aggressor superpower of the East" that Iran had until recently reserved for the U.S.S.R.

Tehran's rapprochement with Moscow has enraged many of Iran's right-wing clergymen, who now regard the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini as an opportunist and an apostate. Though the rightists have thus far lost the battle to keep the Islamic revolution uncontaminated by Communist support, they have gathered strength in the power struggle over who will succeed Khomeini. Government leaders have announced that preparations are being made for the selection of a supreme council of experts, which will consist of three to five theologians who will take over when Khomeini dies or he becomes too sick to rule. The council might well include one or more right-wing mullahs.

The immediate effect of the announcement was to promote rumors that Khomeini was on his deathbed. The stories were further fueled by word that the ailing 81-year-old leader had canceled all his appointments for two weeks. Explained one highly placed Iranian: "There's nothing wrong with him. He just needs a respite from the power struggle, which is driving him crazy."

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