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Iran's war defender at U.N. goes home

By J.T. NGUYEN

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran's combative ambassador has thrown in the towel, giving notice he is quitting the diplomatic arena he mistrusts and predicting no end to his country's bitter 7-year-old war with Iraq.

Ambassador Said Rajaie-Khorassani, a diplomat who used to teach the Koran, leaves behind a reputation for a controversy built during his six years representing the government of the Ayatollah Ruholah Khomeini in the land of the 'Great Satan.'

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He returns home next month at a time his government needs him most to hold the fort against near total Arab condemnation of Tehran's refusal to abide by a cease-fire decreed by the U.N. Security Council.

'My desire is to settle down and write (about the United Nations),' said the 51-year-old father of six children. 'I am a teacher and look forward to going back to the university. During my stay here, I consider myself as someone who has gone on a very long, extended summer vacation.'

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During his tenure, Rajaie-Khorassani has had to thwart attacks from powerful countries like the United States while lobbying Third World governments for support.

His worst moment came last year when he was accused of shoplifting a raincoat at Alexander's, the New York department store. He vehemently denied the charges and accused the U.S. government of setting him up.

The Alexander's episode has remained mired in confusion, however. The charges were dropped when U.S. authorities reportedly realized it was better to let the ambassador go on with his work with his guilt unclear than to expel and make him a hero at home.

'He made a fool of himself,' one U.S. official said, alleging that it was not the first time Rajaie-Khorassani had escaped arrest in a similar circumstance.

The ambassador, whose country's females are expected to wear the shador in public, also stunned women in formal U.N. social events when he refused to shake their hands, saying, 'We don't do it that way.'

More than any other U.N. diplomat in recent years, Rajaie-Khorassani appeared on American television networks and in newspapers frequently because of the war between the two neighbors and naval and air attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf, involving also the United States.

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The short, bearded and broken-nosed diplomat, who shuns wearing a tie and jacket, has been a ready source of news for reporters covering the United Nations. His colorful remarks and combative attitude at news conferences and formal addresses in the General Assembly have delighted many of them.

A devout Moslem, Rajaie-Khorassani frequently cited verses from the Koran to stress his points, and always began his speeches with the same invocation, 'In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate.'

But he has few flattering words for the United Nations, which he called a 'club' of the elite.

'The war will go on, insofar as the United Nations is not prepared to discharge its responsibility,' the ambassador told United Press International in an interview. 'It inevitably and regrettably is the case.'

By 'responsibility,' Rajaie-Khorassani meant the United Nations must condemn Iraq as the aggressor before Iran would discuss the cease-fire.

He said his country already achieved victory when its troops recaptured territories taken by Iraq years ago when its troops invaded Iran.

'What we expect is some implementation of justice. We think that the criminal should not be able to get away,' he said, repeating his government's paramount condition for a cease fire.

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Rajaie-Khorassani said the Security Council does not have the political will to set up an impartial body to determine which country started the war in September 1980.

And he noted that U.N. efforts to resolve the war are flawed because each country in the 15-nation Security Council has its own special interest in the Gulf region.

'The United Nations is one thing, the war is something else,' he said. 'The United Nations is an international club -- its drums sound much louder than what it can achieve.'

He berated the organization for not grasping the 'substance' of international issues and losing sight of the goals for which it was created 42 years ago.

'The international body is like a toy -- you turn it on when you need to play with it,' he said.

'The approach to resolving the war basically cannot be wrong ... but the problem is to see how honest and sincere, objective and constructive its contents is,' he said.

He said mistrust in the United Nations stems from the fact that governments, while efforting to resolve a war, act only according to each country's self-interest. He said Iran is misunderstood as it tries to defend its 'international right,' an ambiguous reference to Iranian policies in the war.

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Iran is 'reasonable' when it refuses to negotiate the cease-fire with Iraq, he said.

The United Nations lacks intellectual leadership, Rajaie-Khorassani said, criticizing big donor countries like the United States for seeking an elite role proportionate to their big pockets.

Those countries that make 'significant material contributions' to the United Nations embarassed the organization when they withdrew their support, he said.

'They are trouble-makers,' he said.

He said the real intellectual contribution that would make a strong United Nations is the role of individuals like Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias -- 'a wise man' as Rajaie-Khorassani called him -- for devising the Guatemala peace agreement to end fighting in Central America.

Arias was awarded the 1987 Nobel peace prize.

Rajaie-Khorassani declined to speculate on his contributions to fostering better relations with other U.N. members in the past six years, including the United States, often labelled 'the Great Satan' in Tehran's rhetorical lexicon.

adv for release sun.

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