Page 12/The Battalion/Friday, November 7, 1986
Government tries to make friends
Iran seeks support in war with Iraq
By Charles J. Hanley
AP Writer
Bruised by war and strapped for
cash, Iran’s revolutionaries have put
out a hand for international help,
seven years after their showdown
with a super- _
power left them Analysis
stranded in de- mmmb—UMBaMBmuwaui
fiant isolation from much of the
world.
The Iranian overtures come as
U.S. officials seek Tehran’s aid in
freeing American hostages in Leb
anon. But the new Iran connection
ranges far beyond Washington — to
Moscow, Peking and Tokyo. \
Analysts point to a key event —
the purging last month of an Iranian
group in charge of exporting Islamic
revolution — as a sign that Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini’s government
has begun trying to make and keep
friends abroad.
Leaders of that group, the Global
Islamic Movement, were arrested
and charged with murder, treason
and other offenses.
Many Tehran revolutionaries still
favor a policy of encouraging anti-
Western upheavals, Bakhash said.
But others are leaning toward a
pragmatic approach that will win
them broader international support
as they wage their 6-year-old war
with Iraq.
The 1979 anti-Shah revolution
and the subsequent American Em
bassy hostage crisis wrecked Teh
ran’s ties with the Western powers,
especially the United States, long
Iran’s most important economic and
military partner. Disputes with the
Soviet Union also damaged relations
with the Communist superpower.
The revolutionaries boasted they
would make Iran more self-suffi
cient. But in recent months, out of
wartime necessity, they have rebuilt
burned bridges:
• In August, Iran announced it
was resuming shipment of natural
gas to the Soviet Union. Six weeks
later, the Soviets said they would
send technical specialists to work in
Iran for the first time since 1979.
• Last week, France announced it
had settled a major dispute with Iran
over French repayment of a $1 bil
lion Iranian loan.
• In recent months, China has
become Iran’s leading arms sup
plier, U.S. officials report. The
relationship grew after the Parlia
ment Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani,
a leading Iranian “pragmatist,” met
Chinese officials in Peking last year.
• The Iranians are improving re
lations with Saudi Arabia, whose
Shiite minority has been a target of
Iranian revolutionary agitation. The
Saudis sent a delegation to Iran last
year, and — in an unusual move —
Iran’s oil minister conferred with
Saudi King Fahd to try to coordinate
oil-pricing policies before last
month’s OPEC meeting.
• Iranian-U.S. trade has ex
panded steadily in recent months,
the U.S. Commerce Department re
ports. The Iranians shipped $530
million in oil and other exports to
the United States in the first nine
months of this year, compared with
$469 million in the same period last
year.
At the United States’ behest, Is
rael in the past year has shipped mil
itary supplies to Iran, including
spare parts for warplanes, a well-
placed source told The Associated
Press in Washington Thursday. In
return, Iran helped gain freedom
for three American hostages in Leb
anon.
But some analysts, including Gary
Sick, a former Iran specialist with
the U.S. National Security Council,
do not believe a true U.S.-Iranian
rapprochement is in the works.
Court extends
Hasenfus trial
for four days
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP)
—- The Peoples’ Tribunal trying
American mercenary Eugene Ha
senfus on T hursday extended the
trial for four days to let court
members visit the site where his
aircraft was shot down.
Court president Reynaldo
Monterrey also rejected a request
by defense attorney Enrique So
telo Borgen to let Hasenfus’ wife
testify on behalf of her husband.
“The charges are not against
Mrs. Hasenfus and she is not be
ing tried,” Monterrey said. “The
law says that relatives of de
fendants cannot be witnesses.”
Hasenfus, 45, of Marinette,
Wis., was on a C-123 cargo plane
carrying supplies to the U.S.-sup
ported rebels fighting the leftist
Sandinista government. He par
achuted from the plane after it
was hit by a missile on Oct. 5, and
was captured. Two American
crewmen were killed in the crash.
19 found dead in helicopter crash
ABERDEEN, Scotland (AP) — A helicopter carrying
47 people from an offshore oil rig crashed and sank in
the North Sea on Thursday. Only two survivors were
found, and the rest were killed or missing and feared
dead.
The Royal Air Force said the two survivors were
plucked from the sea moments after the two-rotor
Chinook crashed. Nineteen bodies were recovered and
26 people were missing, it said.
Six ships and six helicopters scanned the area, and
the RAF said the ships would continue searching
through the night.
“However slim it is, there’s always hope there may be
more survivors,” said an RAF spokesman at Dunferm
line, Scotland, coordination center for the rescue oper
ation.
Ian Henderson, director of operations for Shell U.K.
Exploration and Production, which operates the rigs,
told reporters it was extremely unlikely anyone in the
water remained alive.
The helicopter was ferrying Shell oil workers from
the Brent offshore field 135 miles northeast of the
Shetland Islands to Sumburgh Airport on the southern
tip of the archipelago when it went down about two
miles from the runway.
The coast guard said visibility was 12 miles, but waves
were 12 feet high and winds ranged from 25 to 38
knots. Water temperature was 48 degrees and the air
temperature was 43 degrees.
The two survivors — the pilot and a passenger —
were rescued by a coast guard helicopter that had taken
off from the airport on a training flight minutes before
the crash.
Capt. Cordon Mitchell, the helicopter’s pilot, spotted
what he thought was a fishing boat or an oil slick. Sec
onds later, he said, he heard Sumburgh air traffic con
trol calling the Chinook, telling its crew they were too
low for radar.
“I went in the direction of what I thought was the oil
slick and when I got there I discovered it was the
wreck,” he said.
He said the helicopter had vanished.
“As we watched, bits of the debris started coming to
the surface, and a couple of survivors appeared,” he
said.
“One was clinging to a bit of wreckage and the other
was hanging on to a dinghy.”
The survivors were flown to Lerwick, the Shetland
capital, and taken to the 10-bed Gilbert Bain Hospital.
Spokesman David March said both suffered from back
injuries and exposure.
The Air Force said the helicopter carried 44 passen
gers and three crew members.
The world’s worst helicopter disaster was in May
1977 when an Israeli military helicopter crashed, killing
all 54 soldiers on board, according to the Guinness
Book of Records.
Salutes
By Dawn Butt:
A&M archaeologist to receive award
Dr. George Bass, a nautical ar
chaeologist at Texas A&M and a
leading expert in scientific and
scholarly investigations of ship
wrecks, will receive the Lowell
Thomas Award from the New
York Explorers Club today.
T he award, named for the late
CBS radio and television com
mentator whose popular pro
grams dealt with exploring the
unknown, will be presented by
CBS Evening News anchorman
Dan Rather and the club presi
dent.
Bass will be in New York on a
round of appearances in the
Northeast that includes a trip to
his hometown of Annapolis, Md.,
to address the midshipmen at the
Naval Academy there.
He also is meeting with officials
of the National Geographic So
ciety, sponsors of the excavation
of a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age
wreck.
T he excavation is being done
by researchers with the Institute
of Nautical Archaeology, whichis
affiliated with A&M.
Bass, who moved the 1NA op
erations from Pennsylvania to
Texas in 1976, is overseeing the
INA studies of the hulk, one of
the largest wrecks ever found in
the Mediterranean.
Bass is the holder of the
George T. and Gladys H. Abell
Chair in Nautical Archaeology at |
A&M. 1 le also has received the La I
Gorce Medal from the National
Geographic Scx iety, and in 1981.
became the third American—the
first not from the Ivy League—to
hold the (ieddes-Harrower Chair
of Greek Art and Archaeologyai
the l'niversity of Aberdeen.
Senior wins top Alpha Zeta scholarship
Derek Fisher, a senior animal
science major from Comfort, has
been named the 1986-1987 recip
ient of Alpha Zeta’s Burkett-Cun-
ninham-Dennis scholarship.
A professional service and
honorary fraternity in agricul
ture, the Alpha Zeta Foundation
awarded the $1,200 scholarship
in the name of its founders and of
a national leader of the fraternity.
As a recipient of the top schol
arship, Fisher will serve as a vot
ing member of the foundations
board of directors.
Fisher is president of the Texas
A&M chapter of Alpha Zeta.
president of the A&M Horse
mans Association and a recipient I
<>l the Texas 4-H Foundation In-
(enlive Scholarship.
Hostages
(Continued from page 1)
three American hostages, most re
cently David Jacobsen, who was
freed last Sunday by Lebanese
Shiite Moslem extremists with ties to
Iran, according to the reports.
Earlier shipments led to the re
lease of two other American hos
tages, the Rev. Benjamin Weir in
September 1985 and the Rev. Law
rence Jenco last July, the reports
said.
The Times reported that the deal
with Iran was worked out by McFar-
lane before he stepped down as Rea
gan’s national security adviser e- j
lier this year.
McFarlane traveled to Iran sevi
ral times with a top aide, Lt. Col Oil
ver North, the National Securrl
Council's deputy director forpotl
cal and military affairs, the Tki
reported.
1 he operation was run almosteJ
tirely by the White House andwi
kept secret from officials in till
Stale, Defense and Treasury Depatil
ments until several months a; |
when word began to circulate, tit
Times reported.
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