Nation: The U.S. Doesn't Give a Damn

Iran's Foreign Minister offers a spirited defense

The day before he was appointed Iran's new Foreign Minister last week, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (pronounced Goht-zah-deh) was being interviewed by TIME Middle East Bureau Chief Bruce van Voorst when he received a telephone call that normally would have gone to the Foreign Ministry. It was the Iranian charge d'affaires in Washington asking if he should attend the prospective U.N. Security Council meeting. "You will not attend, [Acting Foreign Minister] Banisadr will not attend, Iran will not be represented unless they postpone the session," Ghotbzadeh said brusquely, then added: "They can do what the hell they want."

The new Foreign Minister is a tall (6 ft.), well-built bachelor of 43, who likes designer clothes and expensive European shoes. In idiosyncratic but fluent English, he gave Van Voorst a spirited and sometimes contradictory defense of Iran's widely criticized actions.

Q. How do we get out of this situation?

A. (Long pause.) Well (pause), Ghotbzadeh there is a Shah. Once upon a time, there was a Shah who was supported, nourished by good ol' America. That country trained these torturers, that country brought him to power.

Q. Did torturers have to be trained?

A. By the Americans, by the Israelis. That's part of the "civilization" we got from the U.S. And Israel. And you armed him to the extent that the guy was capable of killing thousands of people.

Then after the revolution, the U.S. promised that we'd let bygones be bygones, we're going to create new relations, and we're not going to intervene. And all of a sudden we detected agitation at various places. And everywhere, as it turned out, we saw the fingers of the Americans.

Q. In what?

A. In Baluchistan America was engaged. In Kurdistan America was engaged. In economic warfare America was engaged.

Q. Do you have any evidence of this?

A. Well, to an acceptable degree, we'll prove this. Anyway, now all of a sudden we saw this guy who was much hated, and who we knew was the lackey of Americans, suddenly in the U.S. for "medical" treatment. The guy is reportedly dying of cancer, yet he receives Kissinger and talks to him for 1 ½ hours. Then our government politely demands that if that's the case, well, for our public opinion, be nice enough and allow Iranian physicians to go check. That request was refused by the U.S. Government. Then we realize that the U.S. Government doesn't give a damn about public opinion in our country and by accepting the Shah, deliberately and openly tries to insult our people, our revolution and our ideals. That was intolerable. Then these students felt they had been tremendously insulted and doublecrossed. They acted by themselves. They took the embassy.

Q. But no other government could condone an action like that.

A. The students have done something that was in the heart of every Iranian—to strike back at the insult they had received.

Q. It has been suggested that the students occupying the embassy acted on their own, without any knowledge of the Revolutionary Council. Who are they? Do you now know?

A. Yes, we know them now.

Q. Which political groups do they represent? They're not all university students.