Khomeini Still Secretly Getting U.S. Arms, Iranian Rebels Charge

Anti-Khomeini Iranian rebels have captured documents indicating that the Iranian government continues to obtain weapons from the United States, a senior rebel official claimed Monday.

“Soon in a press conference we will reveal documents showing that weapons are still going to the regime from the United States,” Mohsen Rezai, who functions as foreign minister for the rebels, told reporters. He was in Washington for a rally to celebrate the rebels’ victory earlier this month in the Iranian border town of Mehran.

The Reagan Administration maintains that it halted all weapons deliveries to Iran after the Iran-Contra scandal broke almost two years ago.

Rezai’s trip is part of a campaign by the Moujahedeen, the rebel organization, to establish its credibility as a serious opposition group that might someday displace the government of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

However, a State Department official said that the United States considers the Moujahedeen, an Islamic socialist group formed a quarter of a century ago to oppose the U.S.-backed government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, to be an anti-American terrorist organization.

A U.S. official once remarked that from Washington’s point of view, the only Iranian government that might be worse than the present one would be one organized by the Moujahedeen. The Iranian insurgents have no connection with the moujahedeen of Afghanistan, rebel forces that Washington has supported.

According to the Iranian rebels, their army poured across the Iraq-Iran border to capture Mehran on June 19, registering their most spectacular military victory. They withdrew a few days later.

Moujahedeen supporters, mostly Iranian exiles, marched Monday from Lafayette Square across from the White House to Dupont Circle to celebrate the victory. Two congressmen--California Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) and Rep. Donald Lukens (R-Ohio)--addressed the rally, ignoring the Administration’s condemnation of the organization.

The Moujahedeen has its headquarters in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, which has been locked in a bitter war with Iran for almost eight years. U.S. officials say the organization is too close to Iraq to appeal to Iranians, even those who are disillusioned with Khomeini.

Some observers of the Persian Gulf War have expressed doubt that the Moujahedeen’s military wing is capable of mounting an operation such as the capture of Mehran without Iraqi help.

Rezai denied that the Moujahedeen is equipped and paid by Iraq, as its critics have charged.