A debate has apparently arisen within Iran’s leadership over what to do about its long-anticipated “final offensive” against Iraq, American and Western European officials said today. The prevailing view of experts, questioned here and in London, Paris and Bonn, is that Iran, which since March has committed about 400,000 troops and volunteers to the “offensive,” has to go ahead with some kind of assault in the vicinity of the Iraqi port city of Basra. Some American officials, who acknowledge that they may be overly optimistic, contend that the Iranians will probably launch a less than all-out attack, and that once a new stalemate develops, they will finally agree to discuss terms for ending the war, which Iraq started nearly four years ago. Khomeini Said to Back Fight
In this view, which is shared by some European intelligence officials, the main force for continuing the war is Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian spiritual and political leader. According to these officials, the Iranian leadership is actively debating how to proceed, with some seeking ways to persuade Ayatollah Khomeini that it is time to end the war. In recent weeks the Iranians have undertaken a highly publicized campaign of sending thousands of additional volunteers daily to the front for what the Teheran radio has called the insuring of “the clear and final victory of the Islamic forces.” “There is so much anticipation being created about this offensive that they have to do something,” one Administration official said, although acknowledging that previous Western expectation of the offensive had proved wrong.
The Iraqis have said in recent days that the Iranians are on the verge of launching the attack, and an official note was sent to the United Nations on Thursday by Baghdad to that effect. Simultaneous with the buildup along the front with Iraq, Iranian leaders have been very cautious in their own statements about Iran’s intentions. They have not echoed the fervent tone of the radio reports that are exhorting Iranians to prepare for the final battles. In addition, the Iranian Government has accepted the United Nations-sponsored truce on shelling civilian centers and has offered to stop all attacks on oil ships and installations if the Iraqis will do the same. This has led many officials in Washington and in Europe to believe that the Iranians are looking for ways of avoiding a huge battle that could prove costly.
One reason for the caution and the delay in starting the offensive, several officials said, may be the concern of the Iranian professional military that they lack the equipment and the trained personnel to succeed in an attack against the well-entrenched Iraqis. In particular, the Iranians are thought to fear that Iraq would again use poison gas if the Iranians try a “human wave” attack, and that Iraq’s Air Force has superiority over the Iranians. “The Iranians are in a real bind,” a Western diplomat said. “They can’t not have an attack, but they know they’ll get clobbered.”
A pullout of Israeli troops from Lebanon in three to six months would be attempted by Shimon Peres if he was elected Prime Minister of Israel. Mr. Peres, leader of Israel’s Labor Party, which is preparing for elections July 23, indicated in an interview that such a pullout could be possible by adopting a more flexible approach to securing Israel’s northern border. He also said he would change the West Bank settlement policy and would be prepared to negotiate with Jordan on terms not necessarily based on the Camp David accords.
A Libyan businessman believed to have been opposed to the Government of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Athens Thursday night. The attack, the third on a Libyan exile in Greece in less than two weeks, came as the Libyan Foreign Minister, Ali Abdel Salam Turayki, was winding up an official three-day visit.
United States officials said today that a huge explosion about a month ago destroyed large stocks of ammunition for the Soviet northern fleet at a supply depot at Severomorsk, on the Barents Sea north of Murmansk. Between 200 and 300 people were reported killed. The officials declined to give details. But other sources suggested that the Central Intelligence Agency learned of the accident from travelers, then positioned satellites and electronic devices to assess the damage. Those sources said the death toll was estimated at between 200 and 300 people, many of them ordnance technicians sent into the fire caused by the explosion in a desperate but unsuccessful effort to defuse or disassemble the munitions before they exploded in a chain reaction over several hours. Officials at the State and Defense Departments, as well as diplomats and Congressional officials, all blamed the accident on Soviet “carelessness.”
The White House today continued its emphasis on promoting peaceful relations with the Russians as a group of students cheered President Reagan in the Rose Garden after he cautioned them against nuclear freeze demonstrations. “Four more years!” shouted the young people as Mr. Reagan once again used a routine White House occasion to address a campaign issue of major concern to the President’s political strategists. The President, as he has done almost daily, offered a statement of optimism that “we are going to succeed” in reopening arms negotiations with the Soviet Union. But he also criticized demonstrators against armaments and spoke of what he described as the danger of detente. Mr. Reagan said a recent Soviet leader whom he did not otherwise identify once declared that the Soviet Union benefited from detente mainly by watching the United States let its strength “erode and decline.”
President Francois Mitterrand, ending two days of talks with Soviet leaders, said today that relations between Paris and Moscow were growing warmer and that “it is pleasant when one can talk of everything and still remain friends.” In its report on a speech Thursday night by Mr. Mitterrand, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda omitted, as was expected, his remarks about Andrei D. Sakharov, the exiled dissident, and problems of Afghanistan, Cambodia and Poland. But Mr. Mitterrand’s unusual public frankness did not appear to have spoiled the atmosphere of his first visit to Moscow since becoming President. A Soviet spokesman said Konstantin U. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, commented after his final meeting with Mr. Mitterrand today that their talks had shown French-Soviet relations “moving ahead in a constructive line.”
Joseph Luns will resign as secretary-general of NATO. Lord Carrington of Great Britain will take up the post on the 25th. Because of the changes the 1960s and 1970s had brought to Dutch society and culture, the strongly conservative Luns decided not to return to his home country but instead settled in Brussels to spend his remaining years in retirement.
Two lawyers who have been observers at commission hearings into the assassination of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. walked out of a closed-door hearing today. The lawyers — Raul Gonzales, representing the National Bar Association, and Lupino lazaro, representing the family of Rolando Galman, whom the government says was the assassin — asserted the panel was receiving manufactured evidence favoring the Government’s version of the killing. The lawyers said the commission chairman, Corazon Juliano Agrava, repeatedly overruled them when they tried to question a witness, Augusto Floresca, who had testified in two previous closed-door sessions that he saw Mr. Galman shoot Mr. Aquino as the opposition leader he was being escorted toward a military van.
South Korea may resume nonpolitical exchanges with the Soviet Union, Government officials said today. Such exchanges were broken off last September after Soviet fighters shot down a South Korean airliner. A senior Government official said Seoul might send a delegation to the weeklong international geological convention scheduled to start in Moscow on August 14. He said Seoul also was thinking of inviting a Soviet delegation to the opening ceremony in September of the main stadium for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.
China has informed the Reagan Administration privately that it will offer no additional assurances beyond its public pledges on nuclear nonproliferation, according to Administration officials. The Chinese were said to have told American envoys they had taken a “stand of principle,” that the public word of Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang was at stake, and that, as one official put it, “Either you believe us or you don’t.” Officials said today that the Administration is trying through quiet diplomacy to work out some arrangement beyond these unilateral declarations, and that failure to do so would jeopardize the Chinese-American nuclear cooperation pact. These disclosures came against the backdrop of reports of Chinese aid for Pakistan’s suspected nuclear weapons program. Thursday, it was learned that the Administration has evidence indicating that China might be helping Pakistan develop weapons-grade uranium.
A right-wing assassination plot in El Salvador to kill the United States Ambassador, Thomas R. Pickering, was broken up by United States intelligence sources, according to sources in Washington and El Salvador. The sources said that Roberto d’Aubuisson, leader of the National Republican Alliance, known as Arena, was among a small group of Arena members who were said to have planned to kill Mr. Pickering. In Washington, senior officials confirmed that the Administration had learned of a right-wing Salvadoran plot to assassinate the Ambassador and that a high-level official had been sent to El Salvador to issue warnings to the plot leaders.
Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, who had been a strong supporter of Mr. d’Aubuisson’s candidacy, said: “I think it’s an absolute falsehood. There is no evidence that I have seen that he is contended to have been linked” to the reported plot to murder Mr. Pickering.
The United States Embassy here officially refused to comment on the report. Mr. Pickering is in the United States on vacation and could not be reached for comment. Mr. d’Aubuisson also could not be reached. On learning of the plan, the Reagan Administration sent its special envoy, General Vernon A. Walters, to El Salvador to tell Mr. d’Aubuisson of “serious consequences” if it was carried out, according to the Administration official and the sources in El Salvador. General Walters, according to one of the sources in El Salvador, met Mr. d’Aubuisson in the late afternoon of May 18 at the United States Ambassador’s residence here. Mr. Pickering was also reported to be at the meeting.
“General Walters read the riot act,” the official said. “The message was that we knew what was going on and it had better not happen.” General Walters, who could not be reached for comment today, also was said to have told Mr. d’Aubuisson that he had a place in Salvadoran politics as an opposition leader if he chose to take it. In a final move, he reportedly offered Mr. d’Aubuisson a visa to visit the United States. Mr. d’Aubuisson received a single-entry visitor’s visa on May 31. The United States had previously refused to grant him a visa. It is not clear why the United States gave Mr. d’Aubuisson a visa after the reports of the plot against the American Ambassador. But the granting of a visa appears to be part of the effort to woo the Arena leader into a more moderate stance.
A foreign debt consultation process has been agreed on by 11 Latin American nations in what would be their first concrete move toward unity in dealing with the overall debt crisis, foreign and economic ministers said at their meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, where the agreement was reached. The 11 nations agreed to establish a task force headed by Argentina to represent them in proposed negotiations with industrial nations in the World Bank’s development committee.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways commences operations with flight from Gatwick to Newark.
Senator Gary Hart eased his stance on second place, but will still seek the Democratic Presidential nomination. He sounded much more conciliatory to his competitor, Walter F. Mondale. A Hart campaign strategist said he thought signals from the Mondale side indicated that Mr. Mondale would be watching Mr. Hart’s behavior carefully as he considered choices for his running mate. In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr. Hart left the door open to accepting second place.
“The race isn’t over,” Mr. Hart said. “We intend to press our case.” He dismissed talk of the Vice Presidency as “premature.” Previously, the Colorado Senator has said the job did not interest him. Nevertheless, his press secretary, Kathy Bushkin, said today that Mr. Hart “never has been resolutely opposed” to taking second place. Asked if Mr. Hart would accept such an offer, she replied, “We’ll know when the call comes – if it comes.”
As attention focused on Mr. Mondale’s choice of a running mate, the former Vice President’s other major Democratic rival, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, prepared to embark Saturday on a six-day tour of Central America and Cuba, designed to portray the Democratic Presidential candidate as a man of peace. Mr. Jackson spent today in El Paso, Texas, where he addressed the League of United Latin American Citizens this morning, and prepared to fly back to Chicago to make final preparations for his departure. The trip comes at a time of new flexibility on Mr. Jackson’s part in regard to his relationship with the national party and to a dispute between black political leaders and Mr. Jackson over political priorities. The Jackson tour will remove the candidate from Democratic Party disputes in this country, in which he has been involved since the end of the primaries earlier this month.
Medical price controls regarding Medicare are contained in a tentative compromise agreement reached by House and Senate members seeking to reduce the Federal deficit. The conferees proposed freezing Medicare fees for 15 months and assessing penalties against doctors in the Medicare program who increase their charges.
President Reagan attends a briefing at the Pentagon about the future of weapons technology and information gathering.
President Reagan has a portrait session with White House photographer Michael Evans.
Vermont police raided 20 homes and with the aid of social service workers took into custody 112 children of the Northeast Kingdom Community Church after members refused to answer complaints about child abuse and neglect. The raids took place in Island Pond and Barton, in the northeast part of the state. However, a state judge released children of the first 16 families to appear in court, and it appeared likely that all the children would be released. Judge Frank Mahady refused to grant the detention order, and all the children were released by 10:30 PM, after spending the day in the system.
Five astronauts and a paying passenger, the first for a space flight, arrived in Florida today to begin final preparations for the next space shuttle mission, scheduled for launching Monday morning. The flight will be the inaugural run for the Discovery, the nation’s third reusable space shuttle. In their planned seven days in orbit, crew members are expected to release a communications satellite for the Navy, practice deploying a long solar-energy panel, produce a potentially commercial drug and conduct several other experiments. Workers at launching Pad 39A were running ahead of schedule in their preparations of Discovery and its associated rockets. The countdown is to begin Saturday. Liftoff is scheduled for 8:43 AM Monday. At a brief welcoming ceremony here, Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., the mission commander, said the spaceship was “in good shape” and added, “I’ll tell you one thing, the crew is ready to go.”
Mr. Hartsfield, a 50-year-old former Air Force test pilot, is the only member of the crew with space experience. He was the pilot on the fourth flight of Columbia in 1982. Comdr. Michael L. Coats of the Navy, 38, another test pilot, will share the control of the Discovery with Mr. Hartsfield. The three mission specialists, who will operate the experiments and deploy the satellite, are Lieutenant Colonel Richard M. Mullane of the Air Force, 38; Dr. Steven A. Hawley, 32, and Dr. Judith A. Resnik, 35. Dr. Resnik, an electrical engineer, would become the second American woman to travel in space.
A Federal drug agent testified today that it was “possible” he had once referred to the informer who proposed John Z. DeLorean for a narcotics investigation as his “meal ticket.” John M. Valestra, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent most directly responsible for the informer, conceded the point under cross-examination by Mr. DeLorean’s lawyer, Donald M. Re, who asked a series of questions designed to indicate to the jury that the informer and government agents could all benefit from bringing the investigation to a successful conclusion. Asked if he had ever called the informer, James Timothy Hoffman, his “meal ticket,” Mr. Valestra replied, “I suppose everything’s possible.” Mr. DeLorean is charged with conspiring to import and distribute cocaine.
The California Supreme Court has refused to reinstate an invasion-of-privacy suit by a man who thwarted a Presidential assassination in 1975, and a lawyer says his client, Oliver Sipple, would have been better off “if he had let that woman shoot.” The seven justices refused unanimously Thursday to review the lawsuit, which contends that newspapers invaded Mr. Sipple’s privacy by disclosing his homosexuality in articles about his deflection of a gun that Sara Jane Moore was aiming at President Ford. Mr. Sipple said a column in The San Francisco Chronicle, reprinted or quoted in numerous other newspapers, disclosed his homosexuality to his family. But a Superior Court judge ruled against Mr. Sipple, and a state appeals court agreed in May. The appeals court said Mr. Sipple’s sexual orientation was “known by hundreds of people.”
Federal officials say heavy rains and floods this month have washed away at least 80 million tons of Iowa’s rich topsoil in what is probably the worst case of water erosion in the state’s history. A report released Thursday by the Soil and Conservation Service indicated that this month’s rains had eroded four million acres of Iowa farmland. Conservation officials said it would take centuries to restore the topsoil dislodged by the spring downpours in some areas. Earlier this week, state and Federal experts projected farm losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars because of rains that had flooded large sections of the western two-thirds of the state.
Dr. Thomas Noguchi today lost a legal bid to be reinstated as the Los Angeles County’s chief medical examiner. Judge Norman Epstein of Los Angeles County Superior Court said it was with “sadness” that he had to deny Dr. Noguchi’s petition to be reinstated to the job he lost in 1982 after 15 years. Dr. Noguchi, who vowed to appeal the ruling, was suspended and then demoted as county coroner by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors after complaints that he had sensationalized details of the deaths of the actors William Holden and Natalie Wood. Other allegations against Dr. Noguchi included charges he devoted too much time to activities outside the coroner’s office. Judge Epstein called Dr. Noguchi “a good man but he is not an appropriate person to hold the top position as coroner.”
The heart is more than a blood pump, according to recent studies that shows the muscle produces biologically powerful substances that probably act as hormones. Scientists expect that new drugs and better treatment for high blood pressure and some heart ailments will result from further studies of the hormone-like chemicals.
Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England opens: Weather Report, The Smiths, and Black Uhuru headline; other performers include: Ian Dury, Joan Baez, The Waterboys, Fela Kuti, General Public, Dr. John, Fairport Convention, Christy Moore, Brass Construction, The Staple Singers, Billy Bragg, and Amazulu.
Jolande van de Meer swims Dutch record 800 m freestyle (8:39.30).
Chris Evert Lloyd, the world’s No. 2 player, suffered a shocking 6–2, 6–4 defeat today at the hands of Kathy Jordan in the semifinals of the Eastbourne tennis tournament, the women’s last warm-up for the Wimbledon championships, which begin Monday. Miss Jordan, who ended Mrs. Lloyd’s Grand Slam hopes in the third round at Wimbledon last year, played a near-perfect serve-and-volley game despite a fierce wind. “Kathy played great under the circumstances and conditions,” Mrs. Lloyd said. “She was much smarter than me. I felt awkward because of the wind, and I did not play at all well.”
Art Schlichter’s gambling-related suspension by the National Football League was lifted by Commissioner Pete Rozelle today, a decision that the onetime Ohio State star said marked “a great moment” in his life. Schlichter, a quarterback and a first-round draft choice in 1982 by the Baltimore Colts, who have since moved to Indianapolis, was suspended 13 months ago for an indefinite period. The punishment was imposed after he had turned himself in to Federal agents, reporting that he had lost $389,000 in wagers in the months immediately previous and was heavily in debt to Baltimore bookmakers.
[Ed: Schlichter was reinstated for the 1984 season but later admitted that he’d gambled during his suspension (though not on football). He was released five games into the 1985 season, in part because the Colts heard rumors that he was gambling again. As it turned out, he had lost a significant amount of money over the spring and summer while playing golf and wrote one of his golfing partners a check for $2,000. The check was to be cashed after the season started. However, when the golfing partner called the Colts to see if the check was good, team and league officials feared Schlichter had relapsed. The NFL wanted Schlichter to take a polygraph test, but Colts coach Rod Dowhower had already seen enough and pushed the Colts front office to release him. In January 1987, Schlichter was arrested in New York City for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar sports betting operation.]
In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Minnesota Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.
Dale Berra lofted a long-fly single with one out and the bases loaded in the 13th inning, snapping a tie and giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a 7–6 victory and a sweep of a doubleheader with Philadelphia tonight. It marked four straight losses for the Phillies. In the opener, Jason Thompson hit a two-run homer and Lee Lacy drove in three runs with a double and single as Pittsburgh won, 10–3.
Bill Doran slaps two triples and drives in four to spark a 10–3 Houston Astros victory over the San Francisco Giants. Mark Bailey adds a home run. Mike Scott delivers two hits of his own and scattered 11 hits in eight and two-thirds innings while winning his fourth of the year.
Rick Monday, baseball’s first-ever first pick in the June free-agent draft (by the Kansas City A’s in 1965) is released by the Los Angeles Dodgers, ending a 19-year Major League career.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1131.07 (+3.86).
Born:
Dustin Johnson, American golfer (U.S. Open 2016; Ryder Cup 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018; FedEx Cup 2020), in Columbia, South Carolina.
Allen Barbre, NFL tackle and guard (Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles), in Neosho, Missouri.
César Ramos, MLB pitcher (San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers), in Los Angeles, California.
Chris Beckford-Tseu, Canadian NHL goalie (St. Louis Blues), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Died:
Joseph Losey, 75, American theatre and film director (“The Damned: The Servant”; “Accident”; “The Go-Between”).
History Diaries 