Khomeini: A Quest for Vengeance

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Soviet allies would gain a position of influence over a country that is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea. Moscow could then, if it wished, call South Yemeni troops back into combat with Oman, which, like Somalia, is scheduled to provide facilities for the U.S. Rapid Deployment Force.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sold Iraq $500 million worth of arms and ammunition since the Iran-Iraq war began. Nonetheless, Mubarak fears that Saddam may not be able to stand up to the Ayatullah's army and Revolutionary Guards for long. Iran is four times the size of Iraq and has a population that is three times as large. The Egyptian government believes that the fighting may be over by September at the latest. And after that? Would Khomeini rule Iraq as the reigning ayatullah, as he does Iran, or through a Shi'ite-dominated political mechanism more closely attuned to the Arab traditions of Iraq?

That question matters less to Arab leaders than the fact that Khomeini's forces are already plotting the overthrow of every government in the gulf. TIME has learned that a new corps of revolutionaries is being trained under the name of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Gulf. The group is led by a noted ayatullah operating out of Tehran. Recruits are being trained in camps in South Yemen and Libya and in a new facility recently opened for a class of 600 in northwestern Iran. The initial graduates began to filter into the gulf states two years ago. Some of them bungled their first coup attempt last December, when Bahrain police arrested 80 terrorists trained and armed by Iran for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Sheik Isa Al-Khalifa. Other subversive activity in the gulf sponsored by Iran is known to be under way.

One plan being discussed among Iraq's Arab allies for countering subversive activity calls for the establishment of an Arab rapid deployment force. The proposal would involve an Egyptian contingent of several divisions and would perhaps be deployed along the borders of Iraq in Kuwait and in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. As a down payment, Egypt would insist on the restoration of diplomatic relations that were broken off by most of the gulf states following the conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. The Egyptians would also require ample supplies of U.S. equipment and strong American support, including air force and naval assistance if necessary.

But Mubarak must be cautious about committing his troops to foreign service. After the late Anwar Sadat made his historic trip to Jerusalem in 1977, with the full support of his military commanders, they told him that in the future they would fight only for Egypt. They did not want to fight for Palestinians or for the anti-royalists in the civil war in Yemen. Egypt's commanders were prepared to accept peace with Israel, provided that they would never again have to send Egyptian troops to fight outside their own country.