Iranian, U.N. Chief Begin Truce Talks : Tehran Negotiator Says Iraqi Offensive Imperils Peace Efforts

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati of Iran and U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar today held the first round of peace talks on implementing a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq War.

As he arrived at U.N. headquarters, Velayati condemned the latest Iraqi offensive and said Iraq is jeopardizing peace efforts by using outlawed chemical weapons.

Perez de Cuellar said he was advancing the start of his talks, originally set to begin Wednesday, because Velayati was already available. He flew in Monday.

Velayati met for almost 90 minutes with Perez de Cuellar and then told reporters, “We had very constructive and fruitful talks about the implementation of Resolution 598.”

He said he would meet the U.N. secretary-general this evening for a second round of talks.

Further talks with Velayati and his Iraqi counterpart, Tariq Aziz, are to be held Wednesday.

Truce Date in 10 Days Hoped

Perez de Cuellar said Monday that he is optimistic that a truce date can be set within 10 days.

Iran announced July 18 that it accepted the year-old Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in the nearly 8-year-old war. Iraq had previously accepted the resolution.

Since Friday, Iraq has captured Iranian territory and prisoners in a series of attacks but has said it does not intend to keep the land. Iraq has said it intended to take the prisoners to improve its bargaining position in cease-fire talks.

“They have intensified the war on the front . . . in the last few hours they have attacked some cities and invaded our border,” Velayati said today.

‘Going On Very Seriously’

He said Iraqi officials declared Monday that their forces would withdraw from Iran by midnight. However, he said, Iraq invaded two northwestern cities “and still the war is going on very seriously and they have used chemical weapons on a large scale.”

(Tehran Radio quoted an Armed Forces General Command communique as saying Iraqi troops had taken the towns of Karand-Gharb and Islamabad-Gharb after an overnight attack. Islamabad-Gharb is 60 miles east of the border with Iraq, making the assault one of the deepest into Iran in the 8-year-old conflict.

(In Baghdad, the Moujahedeen Khalq, the main Iranian opposition group, announced that the attack was mounted by their National Liberation Army of Iran).

Velayati declined to answer reporters’ questions about the possibility of restoring a dialogue with the United States.

Hostages an Issue

Vernon Walters, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said today that it would be “very difficult” for the United States to normalize relations with Iran before the nine U.S. hostages were freed from captivity in Lebanon.

“I think it would be very difficult for us to justify anything unless they released the hostages,” he said.

A seven-member U.N. team, meanwhile, arrived in Tehran today to work out the technical details of the cease-fire and was to visit Baghdad later in the week.