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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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070389
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07038900.051
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1990-09-22
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WORLD, Page 32DIPLOMACYJust a Little Like HomeIranian Speaker Rafsanjani is feted by Moscow
The death of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini earlier this month
put pressure on Iran to make some kind of move to break out of the
diplomatic isolation into which it had become sealed during his
decade-long xenophobic rule. The main question was which direction
Tehran would look in first. Last week Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
the powerful Speaker of Iran's parliament, provided the answer.
Interrupting his observance of a 40-day period of national mourning
for the late Imam, Rafsanjani arrived in Moscow to an elaborate
reception. The visit was the beginning of a thaw between neighbors
whose relations had been frosty for most of Khomeini's rule. Said
Rafsanjani after his first day: "I already feel almost at home."
Though Mikhail Gorbachev initially seemed subdued in welcoming
Rafsanjani in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin, the President was
soon smiling and bantering with his guest, the highest Iranian
official to visit Moscow since the days of the Shah. In two
meetings, the two sides signed four agreements providing for, among
other things, a new rail link between Soviet Turkmenistan and the
northern Iranian city of Mashhad, which would help fulfill a
longtime Moscow goal of greater access to the Persian Gulf. There
were discussions, but no final accord, on reopening a gas pipeline
from Iran to Soviet Transcaucasia, which was shut down in 1980.
Moscow also announced that it would aid Iran in "strengthening
(its) defense capability," but provided no details. The U.S. has
made clear its opposition to large-scale shipments of Soviet arms
to Iran; any such supplies would be viewed with even greater alarm
by Iraq, which was backed by the Soviets during its eight-year war
with Iran.
Gorbachev views the reconciliation as a way to gain Iran's
restraint in exporting its brand of religious fundamentalism to the
Soviet Union's Islamic republics. Rafsanjani said the two sides had
agreed on a policy of noninterference in each other's affairs, but
then implied that Moscow could do more for its Muslim population.
Said he: "Mr. Gorbachev has a long way to go in terms of providing
people freedoms." Nevertheless, Rafsanjani apparently liked what
he saw: he added two stops to his itinerary -- Leningrad and Baku,
the capital of Azerbaijan, a republic on the doorstep of Iran with
a large population of Shi`ite Muslims.