CIA-RDP96-00789R000301330003-9

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R
003-9
SG1B
Voshington Post ...
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1988 A21
Rafsanjani Named
Chief Commander
Of Iranian Forces
By Patrick E. Tyler
Washington Post Foreign Service
CAIRO, Egypt, June 2-Iran's
powerful speaker of parliament,
Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, today assumed the role
as commander-in-chief of Iran's
armed forces with a mandate from
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to re-
organize the military after two se-
rious defeats in the land war with
Iraq and a costly naval clash with
the United States.
Tehran Radio and Iran's state
news agency announced that Kho-
meini, the country's 87-year-old
spiritual leader, issued an edict re-
linquishing constitutional title of
commander-in-chief to Rafsanjani.
The country's president, Ali Kha-
meini, who also sits as chairman of
Iran's Supreme Defense Council,
was reported to have urged Rafsan-
jani's appointment, calling him "the
only suitable person to be assigned
this important responsibilty."
Rafsanjani, a 53-year-old clergy-
man, has not received any formal
military training.
In the wake of parliamentary
elections during April and May, the
appointment is the clearest indica-
tion to date that Rafsanjani has
emerged as an even stronger po-
litical force at the top of Iran's rev-
olutionary elite.
Rafsanjani's most important con-
stituent, Khomeini, has for the sec-
ond time in six months responded to
calls from his proteges in the highly
factionalized government to consol-
idate power and give the Rafsan-
jani-led forces more authority to
manage the economy and, now, the
war.
In a commentary, Tehran Radio
said, "It is hoped that this transfer
of power will be the beginning of
major developments on the battle-
field."
Iran has suffered a number of
setbacks in recent battles against
Irag. On April 17, Tragi forces dis-
lodged Iranian occupation forces
from the southern Faw Peninsula,
and on May 25, Iraq pushed Iranian
troops from the eastern outskirts of
the southern port city of Basra back
to the international border.
The day after the Faw defeat, six
Iranian warships were sunk or
heavily damaged when they en-
gaged U.S. Navy vessels as they
destroyed two Iranian oil platforms.
The U.S. attack was in retaliation
for an Iranian mine explosion that
damaged the frigate USS Samuel B.
Roberts.
"chief-of-
HASHEMI RAFSANJANI
... "the only suitable person"
Brig. Gen. Ismael Sohrabi, and re-
placed him with an officer with
more solid revolutionary creden-
tials, Col. Ali Shahbazi.
In today's edict, Khomeini au-
thorized Rafsanjani to reconstruct
the armed forces command and to
set up a "general command head-
quarters and organize the full co-
ordination of the armed forces, the
Revolutionary Guards, the security
forces and volunteer mobilization
forces."
Military analysts who monitor
the nearly eight-year-old Iran-Iraq
war have noted that in recent cam-
paigns there appeared to be a lack
of coordination between Iran's reg-
ular armed forces and the Revolu-
tionary Guards, whose leadership
has built parallel ground, air and
naval units under a separate com-
mand structure.
Some analysts have suggested
that Iran's debilitated Air Force and
underfunded regular Army have
failed to come to the assistance of
Revolutionary Guards under attack
at Faw and east of Basra.
Khomeini, in today's edict,
stressed the importance of "com-
plete unity" in the military and
charged Rafsanjani with developing
"specific objectives" in training, lo-
gistics and defense industries.
Rafsanjani has for some time car-
ried the title of Khomeini's repre-
sentative on the Supreme Defense
Council and has been deeply in-
volved in planning and directing
military campaigns such as the oc-
cupation of Faw in February 1986
and the seizure of territory outside
Basra in January 1987, which cost
After the Faw
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"Army