
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990                   TAG: 9007160192
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HELP FOR IRAN DISASTER AID TAKEN, NO THANKS GIVEN

MISS MANNERS must be shaking her head. More than a week ago, Iran's President Hashemi Rafsanjani messaged 98 world leaders thanking them for aid they sent for the victims of his country's June earthquake. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United States had sent disaster aid, too; they were conspicuously missing from Rafsanjani's list.

Never say that Iran can't hold a grudge. It's in a dispute with Saudi Arabia, which accuses it of instigating terrorism at the annual Mecca pilgrimage. It's had a war with Iraq. And the United States, of course, is the Great Satan. Not that Iran refused the $760,000 from the U.S. government and private American agencies, or money sent by anyone else.

Never say, either, that Iran has no chutzpah. Only a couple of days after Rafsanjani's snub, he sent out a feeler for more financial help from the West - and dangling the prospect of better ties. In a newspaper interview, he said: "Kindness affects relations." Miss Manners might wonder: How much kindness does it take?

Something seems to be going on here. Rafsanjani, who must be one of those "moderates" who were always a step ahead of the Reagan administration, is said to want an open door to the West.

But fundamentalists within his government are irate at the very idea of accepting any kind of help from alien cultures. Relieving the devastation of an earthquake that killed 40,000, injured 60,000 and left thousands more homeless is less important than keeping enemies in their place.

To placate the fundamentalists, Rafsanjani omits acknowledging American help. To keep that help coming, he says all relief will be accepted and that it will make Iran feel better about the helper.

That doesn't necessarily work both ways. The Bush administration probably would welcome better relations with Tehran. The American people are less eager: The American Red Cross says contributors have given far less for Iranian relief than they did for earthquake aid in Mexico and Soviet Armenia.

Aid for Iran's earthquake victims is right and just. Human suffering knows no nationality or ideology. Besides, the people helped by American disaster aid aren't those still heaping curses on the Great Satan. The latter are beyond help.

by CNB