Tehran Took 1st Step on U.S. Ties: Bani-Sadr

Iran’s former president says that Tehran made the first move toward a rapprochement with the United States in 1984 and that the two countries later agreed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be ousted.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr said the Iranians made many contacts in three European “centers” established to engender better relations. He said this was “certainly” done with the accord of the Iranian leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Bani-Sadr, first president of Iran’s revolutionary Islamic Republic, said his information is based mainly on contacts inside Iran. An aide said Bani-Sadr, who fled Iran in 1981, has contacts in the Iranian government, the army and other vital sectors.

According to Bani-Sadr, dealings between Iran and the United States were based on an agreement reached in early 1985 that the Iraqi president would be driven from power.

This accord, he said, paved the way for Robert C. McFarlane, President Reagan’s former national security adviser, to visit Tehran and for an “air bridge” delivery of armaments for Iran’s war with Iraq.

Didn’t Know Hussein Details

Bani-Sadr said he did not know whether Iran and the United States were planning to work together to oust Hussein.

Iran has made toppling Hussein its key objective. But it has also sought to export Islamic revolution to other countries--especially to those, such as Iraq, with large populations of Shias, the Muslim sect that predominates in Iran.

Bani-Sadr repeated his claim that McFarlane made two trips to Iran, first at the end of May or June 1 and again in September. McFarlane played a key role in the secret shipment of U.S. arms to Iran, but U.S. officials have acknowledged only one McFarlane trip, in May.

Bani-Sadr said Iran, locked in a 6-year-old war with Iraq, has been receiving U.S. arms and spare parts since 1981, via Israel and an international network that he called “a real multinational.”

But Bani-Sadr attached special significance to a 23-ton shipment of spare parts that he said accompanied McFarlane in September. It contained parts unavailable through normal channels and symbolized a new phase in U.S.-Iranian relations, he said.

“It signified a political arrangement for the Iran-Iraq war,” the former Iranian president said.