From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 21—It was clear that the on-off hostage crisis, which finally came to an end a scant half hour before Ronald Reagan’s swearing in as America’s 40th president on Tuesday, had begun to boomerang badly for the Iranians towards the end. Today, only two bored Pasdaran (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) stood guard outside the…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 22—“The economy can’t get any worse”, say businessmen in Teheran. But the isolation the Iranians brought upon themselves, most people agree, could have been easily averted. The release of the US hostages may reopen the gates to the West and one country that can lose out as a result is India. Hardliners…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHRAN, Jan. 23 — Iranian military plans were always offensive vis-à-vis Iraq. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Iranian Air Force’s first raids on Iraq after the war broke out in late September focused on economically important targets. The Iraqis, too, have concentrated their attacks on Iranian economic centres — a situation…