(Diary of a Vengeance Foretold Part
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The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, is calling for ''a real war'' against the United States in revenge for the downing on Sunday of an Iranian airliner by an American warship. Few at the time could have understood the meaning of Khomeini's΄ words.
According to Dilip Hiro, the Iranian airbus disaster was the culmination of Washington's diplomatic, military and economic campaign in support of Saddam Hussein. Hiro has stated that Washington had coordinated Iraqi military operations against Teheran."[1]
Roger Charles, a retired US Marines Lieutenant Colonel, agrees. Charles told ABC that the United States was an active military participant on the side of the Iraqis, fighting the Iranians. [2]
The Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, widely seen as the next Iran's supreme leader said a war against the United States can not be confined to ''slogans and propaganda campaigns''. A real war must be waged ''on the political, economic, cultural and military fronts.'' [3]
''The criminal United States should know that the unlawfully shed blood in the disaster will be avenged in the same blood-spattered sky over the Persian Gulf,'' Teheran radio broadcasted. Iran's President, Hojatolislam Ali Khamenei, called President Reagan and his Administration ''criminals and murderers.''
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, called the downing of the airliner an atrocity and urged Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to have the United Nations condemn the United States as the perpetrator.
Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Mahallati, told US media that the atrocity had been premeditated.
US Air Force Military Airlift issues a warning to its civilian contractors. ''We believe that Iran will strike back in a tit-for-tat fashion - Mass casualties for mass casualties. We believe Europe is a likely target for a retaliatory attack. This is due primarily to the large concentration of Americans and the established infrastructures in place throughout Europe.''
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Dilip Hiro, The Longest War, Routledge 1991, 211f., 239f.
2. The USS Vincennes: Public War, Secret War, July 1 1992, ABC News, Ted Koppel
3. Montazeri fell out with Khomeini - shortly before his 1989 death – for having openly and forcefully complained about powers attributed to unelected clerics.
THE DOWNING OF FLIGHT 655; Military Errors: The Snafu as History - R. W. Apple – New York Time, July 5, 1988
As Iran Mourns, Khomeini Calls for 'War' on U.S. - YOUSSEF M. IBRAHIM, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 5, 1988
