LOS ANGELES, March 24 (UPI) -- Iran's media in the past week has been dominated by concerns over the possible spin-over of the U.S. war on Iraq into their nation.
Tehran's newspapers have reflected a nation determined to stay out of the conflict and to try and prevent floods of refugees or disease epidemics destabilizing it. But at the same time, Iran's leaders have continued to make clear that fear and distrust of the United States remains their over-riding concern.
Iranians have been bracing themselves for an anticipated flood of Iraqi refugees fleeing U.S. attack.
The Daily Entekhab newspaper reported March 12 that UNICEF was planning to send aid packages to Iran for the use of a possible flood of Iraqi refugees. The paper quoted UNICEF officials as saying that as many as 500,000 Iraqi could seek to enter refugee camps already established in west and southwest Iran after war broke out.
With war imminent, the Iranian government battened down the hatches and sought to rush its officials and their families out of harm's way.
Hours before the war started, on March 19, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported from Tehran, "Iran has recalled all its diplomats and their families from Iraq, closing its embassy in Baghdad due to the ongoing Iraqi crisis."
Reports from inside Iran indicated that ordinary Iranians, especially those in the southern and western cities within close distance of the Iraq border, remained tense and worried. In response, the Iranian media reported government officials seeking to reassure the public that the war would not touch Iran.
IRNA reported that on March 20 that the secretary of the Iranian expediency council, Mohsen Rezaei, rejected "rumors saying that the United States may extend the war to Iran."
IRNA also reported that Iran had closed its borders completely to Iraq. It also reported that Iranian officials, concerned about the anticipated flood of Iraqi refugees, were considering setting up new refugee camps along the Iraqi-Iranian border to settle the Iraqis and prevent them from actually entering the country.
And on March 19, the Tehran government also warned that Iraqis seeking refuge from the war might carry dangerous diseases into the country, IRNA reported.
Abolqasem Mokhtari, a member of the Iranian parliament from Zabol, a city near the Iraqi border, told IRNA that intestinal diseases, cholera and tuberculosis were among the major diseases that Iraqi refugees might bring with them.
The daily newspaper Keyhan reported March 19 from Iraq that gasoline in the north of Iraq had become scarce and very expensive on the eve of war. The paper also reported that a former senior commander of the Iraqi Army, Gen. al-Khazrgi, was going to lead a military force alongside U.S. troops against Iraq.
As the war erupted last week, Iranian leaders reiterated their policy of armed neutrality. On Thursday, only hours after the first U.S. attacks against Iraq started, Iranian Defense Minister Adm. Ali Shamkhani predicted that further attacks and tensions resulting from them would continue to trouble the region.
But he reassured Iranians that their armed forces on the nation's southern, western and northwestern borders continued to have full control over land, sea and air approaches to the country.
Iran's government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh also emphasized Iran's neutrality in the ongoing war. Iran would not support any Iraqi opposition groups residing in its territory, IRNA reported on March 20.
As noted in previous Iran Media Watches, Iran and Iraq have sought to resolve outstanding issues still disputed between them. But differences remain.
IRNA reporting from Khuzestan province on March 19 quoted the head of the Search Committee for Soldiers Missing in Action in the Iranian army, Brig. Gen. Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, as saying: "The release of the remaining Iranian prisoners by the Iraqi regime will not satisfy all of the demands of the Iranian government. "
Some 351 Iranian prisoners held in Iraqi prisons have recently been released and returned to Iran. Meanwhile, 888 Iraqi prisoners of war were also released by the Iranian officials with supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross last week, IRNA reported.
Although some issues of tension and a tone of distrust still influence Iranian attitudes towards Iraq, there is no question that fear and distrust of the United States continue to play a far more prominent role in the concerns of Iranian leaders.
IRNA reported on March 16 that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, in a speech attacked the recent draft resolution by several U.S. senators against Iran. Repeating a familiar theme, he described the statement as an effort to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.
Three days later, Asefi publicly rejected a claim by U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Edward Aldridge that Iran's arms and missile programs were a threat to Europe and North America, IRNA reported on March 19.
Iranian newspapers also expressed concern about continued U.S. diplomatic efforts to force any new inspections regime on Iran's nuclear program.
The English-language Tehran Times in an opinion column on March 17 recommended that the Iranian government prevent any new inspections of the country's nuclear plants unless U.S. sanctions efforts against Iran were abandoned.
The paper noted that U.S. President George W. Bush a week before had renewed sanctions, deterring U.S. firms and citizens from developing a new oil trade with Iran.
The paper added: "Iran's nuclear installations are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, yet Washington has been pressuring Tehran for more supervision. ... Bush's decision comes amid fresh tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear programs."
But while Iran's leaders clearly fear America's growing power in their region, they continue to express the hope that it will be unsustainable.
The Daily Ettela'at reported on March 17 that Iranian Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei in a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Asad said: "Changing the political geography of the region is beyond the ability of the United States."
(Mojdeh Sionit is a former Iranian journalist now resident in the United States.)
