Iran Leaders Warn of Big Drive on Iraq

Iran has 1,000 battalions of Revolutionary Guards ready to move to the battlefront for a final offensive to end the six-year-old war with Iraq, two Iranian leaders said Friday.

Such an assault would involve an estimated 350,000 paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, who are not members of the regular army.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored here, said the planned offensive was announced by Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi and Speaker of Parliament Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The agency quoted Moussavi as saying, “The great offensive of the Muslim forces of Iran against the obviously weakened Iraqi troops is not far off.”

According to the report, Rafsanjani, speaking at the Friday prayer meeting at Tehran University, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has completed preparations for sending 100 fighting battalions to the front.

The agency said Rafsanjani also warned Arab states on the Persian Gulf that Iran claims the right to close the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the gulf and block their oil exports if they continue aiding Iraq.

“When you place your oil funds at the disposal of the Iraqi regime and support and back that regime, you are partners in the war,” he was quoted as saying.

The average Revolutionary Guard battalion has about 350 members, most of whom are young volunteers and followers of Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Iran already has an estimated 250,000 Revolutionary Guards at the front, and 100 additional battalions would increase the force to 600,000. Iran also has a 400,000-member army.

Iran’s numerical superiority is largely negated by Iraq’s supremacy in the air, its larger and more modern armored force and its strong defense lines along the 730-mile front.

Iranian leaders have been saying for several months that they were about to launch a “final offensive,” and military analysts believe that the plan may have been delayed by a lack of armaments.

There have been reports that Iran is acquiring weapons from China, reports that China has denied.

Rafsanjani, in an interview Friday with Tehran radio, said Iran is manufacturing spare parts for its U.S.-made armaments and has acquired “the best American-made defensive missiles in the world and has enough stored to fight for another 10 years.” He did not comment on the type of missiles.

In the interview, also monitored here in Cyprus, he said another source for spare parts has been the international arms market.

“The warehouses of the world’s arms dealers are full, and they look out for customers who can pay cash,” Rafsanjani said.

Iran’s military is equipped almost exclusively with U.S. arms purchased before the revolt that ousted the monarchy of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in January, 1979.

The U.S. arms sales were halted after Muslim militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November, 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Iran is believed to be anxious to win a military victory soon because of Iraq’s increasing air strikes against Iran’s vital oil facilities and other economic targets.

In the Persian Gulf War fighting, meanwhile, Iraq reported that its warplanes attacked a radar station that is part of the defensive network for Iran’s main oil terminal on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf.