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The New York Times
Wednesday, July 14, 1982
IRAN RENEWS DRIVE AGAINST THE IRAQIS IN BORDER REGION
By Reuters
LONDON, Wednesday, July 14 - Iran said early today that its troops had opened a new offensive against Iraqis
aimed at keeping Iranian cities safe from the fire of Iraqi gunners.
Iran's official press agency, which had long distributed threats to invade Iraq, quoted a military communique as
saying Iranian troops had overrun ''the first bunkers of the enemy'' and were advancing. It did not say, however,
where the fighting was taking place or whether Iranian troops had crossed into Iraq.
But Iraq said Iran had begun an attempt to invade southern Iraqi territory in the area of the Iraqi port of Basra, 14
miles from the border between the two countries. Iraq's statement, distributed by its official press agency
Tuesday night, also did not make clear whether the Iranians had actually crossed the border.
(In Washington, where officials had said earlier that Iran had massed troops near the border poised for an
invasion, Rush Taylor, a State Department spokesman, said there would be no immediate comment on the
latest reports.)
Iran Rejected U.N. Truce Plea
The Iraqi reports came hours after the Iranian Prime Minister declared that his Government could not accept the
plea for a ceasefire voted Monday by the United Nations Security Council.
The Iranian radio, monitored here, quoted Prime Minister Hossein Musavi as saying Iran would continue the war
until all its conditions were met. But he did not say Iranian forces would invade Iraq.
The Prime Minister insisted, despite Iraqi denials, that Iraq still had troops on Iranian soil, and he said they must
be withdrawn unconditionally. He made it clear that otherwise Iranian troops would act to drive them out.
The Prime Minister also demanded that Iraq pay war reparations and ''be condemned'' as the aggressor in the
war, which began on Sept. 22, 1980, with Iraqi air strikes at Iranian airfields.
If these conditions are met, he said, ''the war will end.''
Ouster Not Included in Demands
But he did not include in his list of conditions what other Iranian leaders had long demanded - the ouster of
Presi-dent Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Although Iraq announced two weeks ago that its forces had pulled back to the border, Iran had insisted that Iraqi
forces still held strategic heights along the frontiers.
The latest fighting was apparently the heaviest since May, when Iranian forces retook the port city of Khurram-
shahr, which Iraqi forces seized in the early weeks of the war. The recapture of the city followed a series of
Iranian of-fensives begun late last year and led to an announcement by Iraq that its forces were withdrawing
from Iranian soil.
Iran announced that its new operation, code-named Ramadan, for the Islamic holy month, began at 9:30 P.M.
Tues-day (2 P.M., New York time). Teheran said the attack was aimed at perfecting ''the defense'' of Iran and
preventing any ''further Iraqi and other United States lackey's aggression'' such as the war that began in
September 1980. It said also that it wanted ''to keep at a distance Iraqi fire'' from Iranian cities.
The statement did not specify how Iranian troops meant to keep Iraqi gunners from firing at Iranian cities from
em-placements close to the border.
Earlier, the Teheran radio had reported that artillery and air clashes had been fought along Iran's southwestern
bor-der with Iraq. The dispatch distributed by the Iraqi press agency said: ''Iranian troops started a new attack
against Iraq on Tuesday night aiming to cross the international border between the two countries in the southern
sector of the front in the Basra area.
''The high command of the Iraqi armed forces announced this in a communique late tonight. The communique
went on to say that the Iraqi armed forces and people will repulse and crush this new offensive of the Iranian
enemy.''
The Iraqi communique noted, the press agency said, that Iraq had taken a ''positive'' attitude toward the call by
the United Nations Security Council Monday night for a peaceful solution of the conflict. The communique also
reiterated that all Iraqi troops had left Iran ''in compliance with the decision'' last month by Iraq's Revolutionary
Command Coun-cil, which had hoped the move would induce the Iranians to enter into negotiations for a
settlement of their conflict.
Since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon six weeks ago, Iranian threats to invade Iraq had increased. These led to
speculation that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, might order his army to pass through Iraq to
help the Syrians and Palestinians. The Ayatollah, however, has been silent so far on the matter of an invasion.
On Monday, the Teheran radio appeared to be seeking to keep pressure on Iraq by saying that an invasion was
im-minent, and Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Vellayati, said Iran was militarily capable of carrying out an
invasion.
On Saturday, the Teheran radio said it was Iraq that was massing troops on the Iranian border in preparation for
a new offensive in the 22-month-old war. This statement was dismissed as absurd on Tuesday by Iraq's Culture
and In-formation Minister, Latif Nasif Jassem.
Mr. Jassem said, according to the Iraqi press agency, that any Iranian invasion would be a disaster for the
Iranian army ince ''14 million Iraqis are mobilized to defend the country under President Hussein's leadership.''
Iran's Prime Minister said in his statement Tuesday that Iran would ignore any United Nations attempt to set up
an international force to oversee any cease-fire.
''If the Security Council issues 10 more resolutions, we cannot drop our legitimate demands,'' Mr. Musavi said.
