Iran Warns U.S. of Reprisal for Any Gulf Action

Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said today that if the United States launches an attack in the Persian Gulf “Americans will be unsafe throughout the world.”

In a Tehran radio interview, monitored in Nicosia, he declared: “The events in Lebanon could be repeated for the Americans around the world.”

He evidently referred to the deadly bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine headquarters in Beirut in 1983 and the kidnapings of Americans in Lebanon. Eight Americans remain captive, most believed held by pro-Iranian Shia Muslims.

Rafsanjani reiterated that Tehran would intervene with the kidnapers to free the hostages if the United States frees several billion dollars’ worth of Iranian assets frozen by Washington.

Tension in Strait

His remarks came amid tension over Iran’s deployment of anti-ship missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger said Sunday that the United States is prepared to protect oil tankers against Iranian attacks and is drawing up contingency plans for military action. Iran has attacked tankers of other nations during its 6 1/2-year-old war with Iraq.

Rafsanjani also referred to the abortive 1980 U.S. attempt to rescue American hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Eight American servicemen were killed in the desert at Tabas, 200 miles south of the Iranian capital, when a helicopter crashed into a transport plane.

‘We Are Prepared’

“The Americans once tested (themselves) in Tabas,” Rafsanjani declared. “But the storms in the Persian Gulf are much stronger than in Tabas. We are also more prepared now.”

Referring to any U.S. military action over the Strait of Hormuz, he added: “Of course we don’t want this to happen. We’re not making threats.

“But we are warning the American people to tie the hands of their leaders.