BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
A massive earthquake devastated 200 villages in northeastern Iran May 10, one month after imperialist regimes in Europe launched a campaign aimed at politically isolating Tehran.

The catastrophe killed at least 2,400 people, injured 6,000 others, and left some 50,000 Iranians homeless in a remote mountain region. Other reports put the death toll at 4,000. Most of the destruction spread along a 60-mile stretch of land between the towns of Birjand and Qain. Some destruction was also reported across the border in Afghanistan, where five people were killed. Iranian government officials estimated the damage in their country at $67 million and have appealed for international assistance.

The May 10 quake was Iran's most severe since the Gilan disaster in 1990, which killed between 35,000 to 40,000 people and left 500,000 homeless. A major quake also struck Ardebil and Meshkindshahr on February 28, killing nearly 1,000 people. In early February, another earthquake hit the town of Bojnurd, killing 80.

In the Gilan quake, Tehran accepted international aid, including a paltry $300,000 from Washington. The Clinton administration donated $25,000 for the February 28 calamity and sent $100,000 to the International Red Cross May 12. "We've had our disputes with the government of Iran for many, many years, but we don't have any arguments with the people of Iran," U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns declared as he announced this token contribution.

Washington has no diplomatic relations with Tehran and maintains a trade embargo against the regime, imposed since 1995. On April 30 the U.S. State Department charged Tehran with being "the top terror state." Earlier in the month, Washington cheered governments in the 15-nation European Union (EU) for an April 10 decision to suspend their policy of "critical dialogue" with the Iranian regime, after a court in Germany linked top Iranian officials with the murder of four Kurdish opposition figures.

`United front against Iran'
Pressing for more, an April 27 editorial in the New York Times called for "a united front against Iran," complaining that European governments' "unwillingness to help has undermined the sanctions."

"The critical dialogue has not succeeded," Burns chimed in. "We would be very pleased if the European governments moved to choke off trade with Iran."

Washington has also pushed - without any evidence - to link Tehran to the bombing of the U.S. military base in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, last June that killed 19 U.S. GIs. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the Clinton administration has threatened "further retaliation" if it can successfully hang this charge on the regime.

The German court convicted four men for the 1992 murders of four members of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan at a restaurant in Berlin. Two of those convicted, one Iranian and the other Lebanese, were given life sentences; two other Lebanese men were sentenced to 11 years and five years in prison. The court asserted that a "Committee of Special Operations" ordered the assassinations of the Kurdish activists. This "committee" allegedly includes Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chief of secret service Ali Fallahian, foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The ruling was based on the testimonies of former Iranian president Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr, who lives in exile in Paris, and a former Iranian intelligence officer.

The Iranian government denied any involvement in the murders. "They [German prosecutors] believe the testimony of people whose sole mission in life is to discredit the regime," said an Iranian official, who dismissed the accusations.

After the verdict, the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and all the countries of the European Union except Greece recalled their ambassadors from Tehran. Bonn also expelled four Iranian diplomats immediately.

Tehran responded by expelling four German diplomats and recalling its ambassadors to Germany and the other EU nations, except Greece. Hassan Rowhani, Iranian deputy speaker of parliament, said April 13 Tehran had suspended all trade contracts with New Zealand and canceled a scheduled visit by an Australian economic delegation. Iranian state television reported Rowhani called for a halt to investments in Germany and a ban on purchases of German equipment.

100,000 protest against Berlin ruling
On April 11, the day after the Berlin court decision, protests against it were organized in Iran. On the third day of nationwide demonstrations April 13, more than 100,000 Iranians marched on the German Embassy.

In the wake of the court ruling, imperialist regimes in Europe have downplayed the idea of imposing trade sanctions on Tehran. "An embargo doesn't seem the appropriate response," Jacques Rummelhardt, spokesman for the French foreign ministry said April 11. After an EU meeting of foreign ministers April 29, the government officials agreed to send their ambassadors back to Tehran. That meeting also decided to stop bilateral visits with Iran, deny visas to Iranians with intelligence and security posts, expel supposed Iranian intelligence personnel in EU countries, and maintain a ban on arms sales to the Iranian regime.

Iran is the world's third-largest oil producer, exporting $17.5 billion worth of goods to the EU, mainly oil and gas in 1995. Bonn is Tehran's leading trade partner in the EU, with commerce between the two totaling some $1.2 billion in 1996. German capitalists argued against sanctions April 11 and the German Chamber of Industry and Trade emphasized it would not cancel the visit of a 26-member Iranian delegation to Germany scheduled later in April.

Some 170 German-based companies continued to conduct business operations in Iran. Last year, the state-owned West- deutsche Landesbank negotiated a $160 million loan for developing Iran's Soroush oil field in the Persian Gulf, provoking howls from Washington. "You cannot reproach us for following our economic interests," declared German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel.

In addition, officials of the French oil company S.A. Total said they would continue developing Iran's Sirri oil and gas fields, defying the so-called D'Amato law - U.S. legislation that penalizes foreign companies investing in Iran and Libya.

U.S. rulers divided over Iranian policy
Some divisions have emerged among the U.S. imperialists over their policy on Iran. "The policy of unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran has been ineffectual," wrote former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs. "The attempt to coerce others into following America's lead has been a mistake."

The two bourgeois figures along with Richard Murphy, a senior official at the White House Council on Foreign Relations and a coauthor of the Foreign Affairs piece, said "the strident U.S. campaign to isolate Iran .. drives Iran and Russia together and its U.S. and Group of Seven allies apart."

At an April 16 news conference they urged the Clinton administration to relax its policy of "dual containment" against Tehran and Baghdad, but stated Washington must be prepared to use military force involving "effective and painful retaliatory action" if necessary.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is pressing to beef up its military presence in the region in response to a supposed expansion of Iran's navy. The Clinton administration has deployed a carrier task force and three dozen vessels in and around the Persian Gulf, ostensibly to enforce economic sanctions against the Iraqi regime and to protect the dozens of U.S. and other imperialist warplanes patrolling a no- flight zone over southern Iraq every day.

The possibility for an explosive confrontation is mounting. Last October the U.S. warship Gettysburg was participating in a military exercise in the gulf when it collided with an Iranian patrol boat, and there have been several near misses in the past few months. "So far the confrontations have stayed small and contained," said a military officer. "As we enforce things like sanctions, there's more potential for collisions."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home