IRAN: The Military Is in Charge

But discontent lingers, despite a show of strength and loyalty

Hundreds of tanks and armored cars thundered through the streets of Tehran last week, as U.S.-made Phantom jets screamed through the skies overhead. In a powerful show of force, the Iranian armed forces rolled out their heaviest armament and their flashiest regiments for the annual armed forces day parade. Traditionally, the festivities are an occasion for full-dress reviews and elegant tea parties for officers and their wives. This time, however, it was a day for showing strength and loyalty to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Two weeks ago, in a desperate effort to counter rising opposition to his autocratic rule, the Shah formed a military government headed by General Gholam Reza Azhari, chief of staff of the armed forces.

Hunkered down in a new determination to preserve his throne (see box), the Shah was inexplicably absent from the ceremonies and failed to take the customary salute. Nonetheless, for the first time in the past two months, the capital appeared to have recovered a semblance of normality. Sporadic violence and protest demonstrations persisted in some outlying provinces; in the northeastern city of Mashhad, three people by official account —13 according to anti-Shah sources —were killed when troops fired on demonstrators. But most of the country's striking workers went back to their jobs, including employees of Iran Air, as well as transportation, communications, customs and steel personnel. So did most of Iran's striking oilworkers, who were given an ultimatum: Return to work or lose your jobs. Although slowdowns in some refineries and rigs continued, oil production at week's end had rebounded to 3.2 million bbl. per day, more than half the prestrike output. Officials of the National Iranian Oil Co. hoped to have production back to normal within two weeks.

The return-to-work movement was far from enthusiastic, and the country's 10 million students and 400,000 teachers, as well as newspaper reporters in Tehran, were still out on strike in support of their demands for political reforms and an end to martial law and press censorship. Tehran's normally thriving bazaar was still locked up tight. The merchants had shuttered their shops three months ago out of respect for Ayatullah Khomeini, the exiled leader of Iran's 34 million Shi'ite Muslims and the spearhead of anti-Shah dissent. At his headquarters outside Paris, Khomeini repeated his do-or-die demands that the Shah must go.

The restoration of calm in Tehran gave rise to some optimism, especially in Washington, that the Shah had weathered the most tempestuous period of his 37-year reign. "The most immediate danger has passed," observed an Administration policymaker. "What didn't happen may be most important: a call for a general strike was unsuccessful and new industrial protests did not take place." But the problem of keeping people on their jobs is far from resolved. As a Western diplomat observed last week, "What do you do, post a soldier with a bayonet over every worker?"