TASS DENOUNCES U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN AS ADVENTURISM
The official Soviet news agency Tass
denounced a U.S. Attack on an Iranian oil-drilling platform in
the Gulf on Monday as military adventurism and said it would
bring no dividends to the Reagan administration.
    Tass commentator Mikhail Krutikhin said the administration
had embarked on an adventurist path in order to deflect
attention from the scandal in which the United States sold arms
to Iran and the profits were diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
    "The confrontation is a fact now. What is obvious is that
the latest military adventure will not bring political
dividends to the American administration," Krutikhin said.
    Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze abruptly left a parliamentary session earlier on
Monday, sparking diplomatic speculation that they were
concerned with an urgent matter of foreign affairs.
    Soviet officials have previously criticized the United
States for sending naval forces into the Gulf, saying their
presence serves to increase tension.
    Moscow is officially neutral in the war between Iran and
Iraq. It is a major arms supplier to Iraq but has also sought
broader contacts with Iran in the last year.
    Krutikhin said: "The United States has undertaken an act of
armed aggression against Iran, the probability of which has
long been spoken of by Washington officials."
 Reuter
