Arafat's Hot/Cold Relationship With Iran

by Saloumeh Peyman

(IPS) TEHRAN -- It is said that the only time Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, smiled was when he sat next to Yasir Arafat in the Iranian capital in 1979.

Arafat was the first foreign dignitary to pay tribute to the revolution and was greeted as a hero by the mullahs after Iranians had ousted the CIA-installed Shah -- Mohammad Reza Pahlavi -- and summarily executed all his generals on Feb. 15, 1979.

The Iranians had every reason to be grateful to Arafat. His Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had supplied Khomeini's supporters with the weapons and training needed to stage a successful uprising against the Shah's U.S.-backed regime.

After the Pahlavi dynasty had come to an end, Khomeini, as a sign of appreciation, closed the Israeli embassy in Tehran because of Tel Aviv's close ties to the Shah and turned it into the PLO's official headquarters and embassy, complete with Palestinian flag. Later, he allowed the PLO to have a branch office in Iran's most important and richest province, Khozestan.

But several years later, in the 1980s, Arafat fell out of favor with Iran's revolutionary leaders.

Mojtaba Ahadi, 59, a retired army officer recalled those times.

"Arafat fell in love with the Iranian revolution. It was a love at first sight. But very soon he fell out of the love," Ahadi told IPS.

The turning point was the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war that lasted for eight years from 1980 to 1988.

"Once Iraqi forces invaded part of the southern territory of Iran, Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein and started to admire the Iraqi despotic regime as the anti-imperialism force in the Middle East -- shifting his affections from Iran," said Ahadi angrily.

The retired army officer had every reason to be cross with Arafat. He had fought in the Iran-Iraq war and had seen many of his close friends killed by the Iraqis.

Arafat's other falling out with Iran was in 1998 when he signed an accord with Israel promising to crack down on Islamic militants in exchange for a withdrawal of Israeli troops from part of the West Bank.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the PLO chairman as "shameless" and a "traitor."

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, made no comments following Arafat's death on Thursday, though the Iran cabinet offered rare praise for the PLO leader calling him a defender of the Palestinian people.

But responses from other Iranian leaders were also muted.

The chairman of the State Expediency Council, Aliakbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, played down the importance of Arafat in his separate condolence cable.

"Palestinian groups having recognised the true nature of the occupants in Palestinian lands, should find a true way to fight the Israelis," he said in the cable.

Similarly, speaker of Parliament, Haddad Adel said: "The destiny of the Palestinian nation is not in the hands of individuals. Therefore the death of someone in their leadership shall have no impact in the campaign against Zionists."

Arafat, however, had a defender in Hasan Arabzadeh, a 62-year-old chartered accountant.

"Those who see Arafat as a leader who granted concession to Israelis, should recall that the same man was the hero in Al-Karameh -- the Jordanian town where Arafat and his Fatah movement fought a heavy battle against the Israelis," Arabzadeh told IPS.

Arafat founded Fatah, an organisation dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Fatah was unsuccessful in an attempt to blow up an Israeli water pump in December 1964. After the Six-Day War, Israel shifted its attacks from the Arab governments to the various Palestinian organisations, including Fatah.

In 1968, Fatah was the target of an Israeli Defense Force attack on the Jordanian village of Al-Karameh, in which 150 Palestinian guerrillas and 29 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Despite the high Palestinian death toll, the battle was considered a victory for Fatah because the Israeli army was repulsed. The profiles of Arafat and Fatah were raised by this important turning point. By the late 1960s Fatah had come to dominate the PLO, and at the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo on Feb. 3, 1969 Arafat was appointed PLO leader.

Meanwhile, the state-controlled media is urging Iranians to take to the streets on Nov. 12 -- the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan -- dubbed by Ayahtollah Khomeini as "World Qods Day." It is trying its best to ensure that Arafat's death will not overshadow the planned rallies to "defend the honour and dignity of Muslims around the world."

The 'Kayhan' daily on Thursday officially confirmed Arafat's death and wrote: "On Qods day, we declare a global war against Israel." In turn, the hardliner 'Mehr' news agency described Arafat as a "bankrupt veteran."