U.S., Iran May Thaw Relations to Aid Refugees

WASHINGTON —  The Bush Administration said Tuesday that it hopes to begin shipping relief supplies to Iran to be distributed to Kurdish refugees from Iraq in what would be the first such direct commerce since events that led to the Iran-Contra scandal.

The contacts with Iran, which have been conducted through Swiss intermediaries, have been limited to refugee matters, White House officials said. Even so, they reflect a new willingness on both sides to move beyond the diplomatic freeze that has been in place since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Officials said the potentially groundbreaking, indirect discussions with Iran have not been concluded, but they suggested that it is likely the United States eventually will provide the relief supplies, such as tents, clothing and blankets, for refugees.

Iran has sought the help, “and we will be providing that material,” said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater. Some U.S. assistance, delivered through international relief organizations, already has been directed at refugees in Iran, officials said.

“We’re looking at the list of support which the Iranians have said they’d like to have, and we’re studying the best way to continue to supply those refugees,” Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said. “Whether we will fly directly there or not, I don’t know.”

Hundreds of thousands of refugees--mostly Kurds and Shiite Muslims--have fled to Iraq’s frontier with Iran, seeking shelter from punishment by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces in the wake of the failed uprisings against the Iraqi government.

Similarly, massive numbers of refugees have fled north into Turkey. U.S. troops are setting up camps in northern Iraq in an effort to coax the Kurds back into Iraq with promises of security, shelter and food.

Fitzwater said that, as a result of malnutrition and other deprivations, about 510 deaths per day are occurring among the refugees camped on the cold mountainsides of southern Turkey and along the Iraqi-Turkish border. The government earlier had estimated that 60 deaths were occurring each day, but a recalculation of initially sketchy information produced the higher figure.

He said there are about 450,000 Kurdish refugees in Turkey, another 400,000 on the Turkish border, 1 million in Iran and 500,000 at the Iranian border.

“It appears that the refugee flow into Turkey has largely ceased,” he said. With 1,300 U.S. troops on duty in northern Iraq, others are moving into the camps set up for them there, he said.

Williams said the allied relief effort has delivered nearly 4,732 tons of supplies to the frontier refugee camps. Iraqi units in the vicinity of Zakhu, in northern Iraq, “appear to be keeping a distance--while at the same time appearing to argue their sovereignty by demonstrating a presence,” he said.

“In some cases, individual Iraqi soldiers are actually cooperating with the effort,” Williams said, citing the example of some Iraqi troops clearing mines on one side of a road connecting Zakhu to Silopi, the center of the refugee effort in Turkey, while U.S. soldiers cleared mines from the other side.

He said there were several hundred lightly armed Iraqi troops in and around Zakhu. U.S. officers in the region have described them as Iraqi police.

Ever since the Iran-Contra affair of 1985 and 1986--in which U.S. weapons were shipped secretly to Iran in an effort to gain the freedom of U.S. hostages held in Lebanon by groups believed loyal to Iran’s revolutionary leadership--U.S. officials have been extremely skittish about any contact with Iran. And Iran has shown little interest in reaching out to the West.

Thus, any U.S.-Iranian agreement on direct American aid for the refugees would represent a change in the frozen relationship.

Still, one White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the contact does not necessarily forecast a warming trend.

Recalling President Bush’s statement in his 1989 inaugural speech that “goodwill begets goodwill,” the official said there is “no reason to believe they’d have been seeking goodwill except for the fact that they have half a million unwanted visitors on their border.”

“I’m sure they’re asking because of the size of the problem and not out of any desire on their part to get closer to us,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill authorizing $425 million in emergency relief for the Kurds.

Expressing exasperation over Hussein’s continued hold on power, several members questioned U.N. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and Assistant Secretary of State John R. Bolton about the possibility of overthrowing the Iraqi dictator and trying him for war crimes.

After Bolton stated that he does not believe the United States has the authority under existing U.N. resolutions to attempt the removal of Hussein, Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) lectured the Administration official:

“We are fooling ourselves. The President says he doesn’t want to get involved in a quagmire. That is exactly what we are creating. So long as Saddam Hussein and his government remain in power, these people (the Kurdish refugees) will not return to their homes.”

Solarz said he wants the Administration “to think seriously about going back to the U.N. and getting a new resolution demanding the removal of this regime and authorizing the use of force if necessary to remove it.”

Although the Solarz proposal also drew support from a Republican committee member, Rep. John Miller of Washington, it is obvious that the United States would have a very difficult time mustering the necessary nine votes on the Security Council for such a resolution. It would probably strike other governments as blatant interference in the internal affairs of a U.N. member.

Both Pickering and Bolton also told committee members earlier that it made little sense to stage a war crimes trial for Hussein while he is not in custody. And Bolton made it clear that the Administration has no present plans to apprehend him.

Bolton said, in fact, that “the risks of a trial in absentia are such that it might preserve him in power, which is not our objective.”

But Pickering tried to show that the Administration still intends to demonstrate toughness in dealing with Hussein.

Accusing the Iraqi government of trying to mislead the United Nations by saying that it possesses no material that could be used in a nuclear bomb, Pickering said the United States would oppose any relaxation of sanctions until Iraq tells the truth to the United Nations. Iraq has asked permission from the U.S. Security Council’s sanctions committee to sell almost $1 billion worth of oil to buy food.