IRAN
Khomeini finds a convenient new scapegoat: the Communists
It was a peculiarly bloodless demolition of a largely toothless group. On TV broadcasts videotaped in jail, glum leaders of Iran's Tudeh Communist Party confessed, one by one, to being Soviet spies. Haggard and morose, First Secretary Nureddin Kianuri conceded that since its inception in 1941, the party had been "an instrument of espionage and treason," and added that he had been spying for Moscow since 1945. After seven colleagues elaborated on the details of their treachery, Ali Amou'i, a ranking Central Committee member, warned Iranian youths not to follow his example and calmly declared the dissolution of the entire Tudeh Party. Then, heaping insult upon injury, the Islamic regime of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini informed 18 Soviet diplomats that they would have 48 hours to leave Iran. Proclaimed a triumphant Khomeini: "The Islamic umma [nation] of Iran should glory in its self-sacrificing and devoted combatants who have ensnared the treacherous Tudeh Party chiefs."
Those words seemed more important than the gaudy actions that preceded them. Despite its fanatical loyalty to Moscow, the widely reviled and politically ineffective Tudeh Party (membership: between 2,000 and 3,000) seemed to be nothing more than a symbolic victim. Many analysts noted that Khomeini thrives on crisis, habitually seeking to dramatize his strength and distract his restive populace by pummeling some scapegoat. Past offenders have included the U.S., which Khomeimi frequently calls the great Satan," the Mujahedin-e Khalq guerrillas, who oppose the regime, and the army of neighboring Iraq. Late last year, Khomeini added the Soviet Union to his list. It was a startling switch, especially for U.S. policymakers, who have been anxious about the possibility that the Soviets would make mischief in Iran ever since the fall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. As a State Department analyst noted last week, "Khomeini seems to be living up to his 'neither East nor West' promise."
Moscow-Tehran relations have, in fact, long been characterized by mutual and mistrustful exploitation. The Soviets were far from enthusiastic in their support for Khomeini in the months just before his 1979 overthrow of the Shah. The reason, as a Tudeh member now in jail puts it, was that "Moscow perceived the clergy as incorrigible reactionaries." Those fears were well founded. Right-wing clergymen routinely reviled the Soviets as godless Communists, while Khomeini opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But Moscow wooed Tehran by offering assistance against the nettlesome Mujahedin guerrillas. In response, the mullahs invited KGB agents to Iran to provide military and economic advice. Last year Moscow proposed a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance with Iran, while offering repeatedly to mediate in Khomeini's 2½-year-old war against Iraq, a longtime Soviet client.