Izvestia Accuses Tehran of Aiding U.S. in Afghan War

The Soviet government newspaper Izvestia accused Iran on Monday of aiding the United States and other forces of imperialism in an undeclared war against Afghanistan.

At the same time, Izvestia said, Tehran has launched “an unbridled, hostile campaign” against the Soviet Union over Moscow’s support for the Afghan government in Kabul. It also accused Iran of “blatant interference” in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, both by supporting insurgents fighting the Kabul administration and through direct military aggression.

“By participating in subversive activity against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Iran has in fact lined up with the United States and its allies,” Izvestia said.

Toughest Attack in Months

The Izvestia attack was the toughest by Moscow against Tehran in many months, and analysts said it reflects a new downturn in the long-troubled relations between the Soviet Union and the Islamic authorities in Iran.

The newspaper suggested there is a link between Iranian policy toward Kabul and Moscow and weaponry that Tehran recently received from the United States under a secret operation in which Israel also took part.

It quoted John M. Poindexter, former national security adviser to President Reagan, as saying that part of the weaponry was destined for Afghan rebels by agreement with the Iranians.

Izvestia also quoted a French television report as saying the Iranian government transferred payment for the weapons directly to Swiss accounts held by U.S.-backed Nicaraguan insurgents and also to CIA accounts.

Aids ‘Reactionary Forces’

“To whose advantage but that of the United States, the Israeli Zionists and other reactionary forces is the course of the present leadership of Iran?” the paper asked.

It said Tehran “in words proclaims it follows anti-imperialist ends but in fact cooperates with forces of imperialism in carrying out an undeclared war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.”

Izvestia said Afghan government forces in the west of the country near the Iranian border had recently destroyed rebel groupings and captured insurgents who had said they received instructions and weapons for their operations from Iran.

During 1986, it added, Iranian air and land forces “carried out more than 60 acts of aggression” on Afghan territory.

Plane Reported Shot Down

On the Afghan war front, Muslim insurgents hit a Soviet-built Afghan transport plane with a missile and at least 25 Afghan and Soviet soldiers were killed in the crash, guerrilla sources said in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Fighters of Yunis Khalis, a major group fighting the Soviet-backed Afghan regime, shot the plane down 50 miles east of Kabul on Saturday, sources in the organization said. They said it went down in a desert area and was destroyed by fire.

According to the sources, the aircraft was propeller-driven and had four engines, but they said they did not know its type. The Afghan air force is known to have Ilyushin 18s, which fit the description.

Was Moving Troops

The plane reportedly was taking Afghan and Soviet military personnel to the eastern city of Jalalabad, and the guerrillas quoted reports from Afghanistan as saying at least 25 soldiers were killed. The Ilyushin 18 can carry up to 110 passengers.

Government artillery units bombarded a village near the crash site that was suspected of aiding the guerrillas and at least five civilians were killed, the guerrilla sources said.

Meanwhile, a U.N. mediator shuttling between Kabul and Islamabad returned Monday with Afghanistan’s agreement to resume the deadlocked Geneva talks on the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Radio Pakistan said.

The last round of talks between West Asian neighbors Afghanistan and Pakistan ended in August in deadlock over a timetable for the withdrawal of about 115,000 troops from Afghanistan, Radio Pakistan said, quoting U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez.

Cordovez returned to Islamabad from the Afghan capital, which he has twice visited to seek a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.