RAFSANJANI NAMED CHIEF COMMANDER OF IRANIAN FORCES

CIA-STARGATE

PDF Scan: PDF

Open AI Summary

Text

Body:  Rafsanjani Named
 Chief Commander
 Of Iranian Forces
 "By PatricE. Tyler
 Washington Post Foreign Service
 CAIRO, Egypt, June 2-Iran's
 powerful speaker ' of parliament,
 Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi
 Rafsanjani, today assumed the role
 as commander-in-chief of Iran's
 armed forces with a mandate from
 ,- Ayatollah` Ruhollah Khomeini to re-
 organize the military after two se-
 rious defeats in the land war with
 Iraq and a costly naval clash with
 the United States.
 '~hran Radio and Iran's state
 news agen'cy'!announced that Kho-
 meini, the country's' 87-year-old
 spiritual leader, issued an edict re-
 linquishing constitutional title of
 commander-in-chief to Rafsanjani.
 The country's president, Ali Kha-
 meini, who also sits as chairman of
 Iran's Supreme Defense Council,
 was.reported to have urged Rafsan-
 jani's appointment, calling him "the
 only suitable person to be assigned
 this important respdnsibilty."
 Rafsanjani, a 53-year-old clergy-
 man,'. As not received any formal
 military training.
 In the wake of parliamentary
 elections during April and May, the
 appointment is the clearest indica-
 tion to date that Rafsanjani has
 emerged as an even stronger po-
 litical force at the top of Iran's rev-
 olutionary elite.
 Rafsanjani's most important con-
 stituent, Khomeini, has for the sec-
 ond Time in six months responded to
 calls from his proteges in the highly
 factionalized government to consol-
 idate power and give the Rafsan-
 jani-led forces more authority to
 manage the economy and, now, the
 war.
 In a commentary, Tehran Radio
 said, "It is hoped that this transfer
 of power will be the beginning of
 developments on the battle-
 fiel
 ;Iran has suffered ' a number of
 setbacks in recent "battles against
 Ir Onpri1 17,'Iragi forces dis-
 lged ' Iranian occupation forces
 from e southern is aw Peninsula,
 andon`May`25, Iraq pushed Iranian
 troops from the eastern od skirts of
 the southern~ppoort city of Basra back
 hemterriationai border.
 "
 The day after the wdefeat, six
 Iranian 'warships were stink or
 heavily damaged when' they en-
 gad U.S. "Navy vessels as they
 desi ro ed two Iranian oil platforms.
 The  S. attack was in retaliation
 bTra an ranian mine explosion that
 f
 Approved Fore"r
 Etes4
 HASHEMIRAFSANJANI
 Brig. Gen. Ismael Sohrabi, and re:,
 placed him with an off    with,
 more solid revohttioredefy
 tials, Col. Ali hahbazi.
 In today's edict, Khomeini au-
 thorized Rafsanjani to reconstruct
 the armed forces command and to
 set up a "general command head-
 quarters and organize the full co-
 ordination of the armed forces, the
 .Revolutionary Guards, the security
 forces and volunteer mobilization
 forces."
 Military analysts who monitor
 the nearly eight-year-old Iran-Iraq
 war have noted that in recent cam-
 paigns there appeared to be a lack
 of coordination between Iran's reg-,
 ular armed forces 'and the Revolu-
 tionary Guards, whose leadership
 has built parallel ground, air and
 naval units under a separate com-
 mand structure.
 Some analysts have suggested
 that Iran's debilitated Air Force and
 underfunded regular Army have
 failed to come to the assistance of
 Revolutionary Guards under attack
 at Faw and east of Basra.
 Khomeini,  in  today's  edict,
 stressed the importance of "com-
 plete unity" in the military and
 charged Rafsanjani with developing
 "specific objectives" in training, Jo-
 gistics and defense industries.
 Rafsanjani has for some time car-
 ried the title of Khomeini's repre-
 sentative on the Supreme Defense
 Council and has been deeply in-
 volved' in planning and directing
 military campaigns such as the oc-
 cupation of Faw in February 1986
 and the seizure of territory outside
 Basra in January 1987, which cost
 tTevs-o&&MM6 7     6   1_