[Miles 200 ability to inflict serious damage on…]
Socialist Press1979 1979-09-05Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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Miles 200 ability to inflict serious damage on Khomeini's army.
At the same time, there are reports of thousands of Kurds moving from Turkey into Iran to take up the struggle for their national rights.
Taleghani negotiated a ceasefire on the basis of proposals to halt the army's advance towards Mahabad, remove the Islamic militia of the Pasderan from Kurdistan, and end the executions of militants with the recall to Tehran of the Ayatoliah Khalhali, Khomeini's hangman.
Discussions
• Such a deal could have provided the basis for future discussions between the TehranQom government and the Kurds bourgeois nationalist leaders.
Khomeini's rejection of this compromise was based on a more gloomy assessment than that of the 'liberal' Taleghani.
Khomeini recognises the precarious balance of his authority and the immense potential of opposition latent in the working class, which could be roused to struggle in unity for its class interests by the struggles for self determination of the oppressed national minorities in Iran.
Undermine
Any concessions to the forces of opposition would have the effect of further undermining the stability of Khomeini's power. Only an all-out drive to dictatorship can succeed in shoring up the basis of his government.
That deadly knowledge has forced Khomeini to step up the offensive against the Kurds, even when the danger of mutiny is rising within the army he inherited from the Shah.
Rank and file soldiers and officers have already been killed