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.
'J^iiran
Radio
and
Iran’s
state
news agendy 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
i thjsjmportent 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
evert 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
'‘m^ferdevelopments on the battle-
field?
/
Iran
has
suffered
a number
of
setbacks
in recent battles against
Ii;^. On April 17, Iraqi forces dis-
lodged
If&nian
occupation
forces
from ’ffie' siSrthefrrPaw Peninsula,
ancfonjVtay 25, Iraq pushed Iranian
troops from the eastern outskirts of
.the southern port city Of Basra back
|
| §§
'fHqda'yaTter the Raw defeat, six
Iranian
warships
‘ were
slink
or
heavily
damaged
when
they
en-
gaged U.S. 'Navy vessels
as they
gaged
U.b. Navy vessels
as they
destroyed two Iranian oil platforms.
The U.S. attack was in retaliation
lor an Iranian mine explosion that
iSimged the frigate U5S Samuel B.
Eberts:
HASHEMI RAFSANJANI
.
.
. “the only suitable person”
Brig. Gen. Ismael Sohrabi, and re-
placed
him
with
an
officer
with,
more
solid
revolutionary
credenC
tials. Col. Alijjhahbazi.
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
Roberts.
^
Basra in January 1987, which cost
Approved