Iran Sends 100,000 Volunteers to Fight Iraqis, Radio Reports

With gifts of sweets and rousing pep talks, Iran sent 100,000 volunteers to the front Wednesday to do battle with neighboring Iraq, Tehran radio reported.

It said some volunteers wore shrouds to show their readiness to die.

Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani told the 100,000-member Mohammed Corps at a send-off ceremony that Iran’s victories had made the superpowers beg for ties with Tehran.

“The greatest powers of the world and the most satanic enemies of mankind thought they were undefeatable,” Rafsanjani said over Iran’s official radio station, which was monitored in Nicosia.

“They knelt before you . . . held out their begging arms asking for your attention and ties. They hoped that you and your leaders would talk to them. This kind of victory is rare in history,” he said, alluding to the United States’ recent diplomatic overtures and arms sales.

Cries of ‘Death to America’

Tehran radio said the Mohammed Corps members shouted “Death to America” as white pigeons flew over the ceremony at Azadi Stadium in Tehran and helicopters dropped flowers.

“Tehran today beamed with light,” the radio said. “The Mohammed Corps is coming. East and West must know that the loud cries of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ will never vanish in Muslim Iran.”

The radio said volunteers to the corps, named after Islam’s prophet, included 2,000 clergymen and 1,000 university graduates as well as peasants, tribesmen, farmers and government employees.

Recruiting for the corps began after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini last month again urged that the six-year-old war with Iraq be continued until victory. Iran has repeatedly rejected Iraq’s calls for a negotiated peace.

Refers to Furor in U.S.

Rafsanjani said the presence of the new volunteers meant that “America, France, the Soviet Union and other satanic powers will stop bullying you. . . .”

He said Iran is not fighting the war by sending waves of soldiers against modern weapons--a tactic it has used in the past.

“For victory in the war, there is a need for brave, skilled and experienced people with modern weapons,” he said. “These people are now at the disposal of the Islamic Republic.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi reiterated Iran’s charges that Arab states in the Persian Gulf aided Iraqi warplanes in an attack on Iran’s Larak oil terminal last week.

Moussavi told Tehran radio that the gulf countries had not denied the charge and that this proved it was true. Iran claims the Iraqi planes that bombed Larak in the Strait of Hormuz refueled in an unidentified gulf state. Iraq said the planes refueled in flight.

“Those in the Persian Gulf who are looking for peace must note that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not relinquish its original policy and will not remain silent toward provocations,” Moussavi said. “It answers a blow with a stronger blow. . . . No one should have any doubt that we are serious in our policies.”