The World - News from May 2, 1989
Iran has agreed to order weapons from the Soviet Union as part of a continuing political and economic snub of Western nations in the wake of the Salman Rushdie affair, the official IRNA news agency reported. Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Mohammed Besharati told the Tehran Times that “all related issues have been finalized.” Iran has already confirmed arms deals with Romania and Czechoslovakia for tanks, missiles and a possible new naval base in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Iran’s leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has called for the death of British author Rushdie over “The Satanic Verses,” a book many Muslims say blasphemes Islam, and Iran has broken ties with Britain.
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