Iran Dismisses Arab League’s Cease-Fire Call

Iran on Wednesday rejected Arab League pressure to accept a U.N. call for a Persian Gulf cease-fire, saying it was not worried about maintaining relations with “some weak Arab governments.”

Foreign ministers from 21 Arab League nations had warned Iran on Tuesday that unless it accepted the cease-fire resolution by Sept. 20, they would consider cutting diplomatic relations with Tehran.

Iran is not prepared “to trample underfoot its revolutionary principles so that it may maintain relations with some weak Arab governments,” Tehran radio said.

No Change

“From the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran, even if some Arab countries cut relations with Tehran, this will under no circumstances bring about a change in developments,” the radio said.

While not an Arab country, Iran shares a branch of Islam with a number of Arabs.

Arab League Secretary General Chedli Klibi had said Tuesday that if Iran did not respond to peace efforts, Arab countries would consider breaking ties with the government of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“The Arab states preferred to put this question off until later to give Iran a chance,” Klibi said. “But if Tehran refuses to submit to the will of the international community, we would find ourselves obliged to revise our relations.”

Tehran radio said in a commentary that the league resolution, issued after a three-day meeting on the gulf war, had to be viewed “within the framework of the American naval presence” in the area and U.S. efforts to win support among Arab countries.

In a broadcast on Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency, no specific mention of the league resolution was made, but Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi was quoted as saying that by intervening in the gulf, the United States was trying to impose “an ignominious peace” on Iran “in collaboration with Arab reactionaries.”

During the league’s meeting, the foreign ministers also backed Kuwait’s decision to re-register its oil tankers under the American flag.

On July 20, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Iran and Iraq and for sanctions against any party that did not abide by it.

Iraq has accepted the resolution. Iran has neither accepted or rejected it , responding only that it doesn’t like the resolution because Iraq is not named as the aggressor.