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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 1, 1991                   TAG: 9102010433
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IRAN ANGERED BY ENTRY OF IRAQI PLANES

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati of Iran criticized a high Iraqi official visiting Tehran on Thursday for allowing nearly 100 aircraft to fly into his country without permission and said the planes would be detained until the Persian Gulf war is over, the Iranian press agency reported.

The agency, monitored in Cyprus, reported that Velayati told Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saadun Hammadi that Iran was neutral in the two-week-long war and was irritated Iraq did not ask its permission before sending the planes to land on its airfields.

Velayati also said Iran regretted the "indiscriminate bombing" of Iraqi civilians by air forces of the American-led coalition seeking to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

But he made it clear Iraq must give up Kuwait, saying Iran's efforts to end the war "depend on an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and the retreat of the alien forces from the region."

Hammadi's visit to Tehran came on a day of intense diplomatic activity there, with senior officials from France, Algeria and Yemen also arriving for a series of apparently uncoordinated talks with Iran's leaders.

Analysts have been puzzled by the flight of Iraqi planes into Iran, with some speculating Baghdad might have made a secret deal with Tehran to provide a haven for its aircraft until later in the war.

But several diplomats said the exchange reported Thursday made the theory of a secret deal less plausible, though Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might still hope to preserve some of his planes until after the war. Or, they reasoned, the pilots might simply have fled to save their lives.

"We assumed Hammadi was going to Tehran to persuade Iran to be more sympathetic and to discuss the planes," an American official said. "But Iran seems to be sticking to its announced position."

Wednesday, Iran formally notified the U.N. Security Council it would detain all Iraqi and allied aircraft and their crews in its possession until hostilities were over.

by CNB