At War on All Fronts

They jammed Revolution Avenue in the heart of Tehran last week, a million Iranians raising their fists and shouting as if with one voice, "Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!" The clutches of women dressed in black chadors, the phalanxes of men bearing placards that said DOWN WITH U.S.: the angry scene had been played out before. This time, however, the crowd seemed reinvigorated, its fury fresh and lethal. "Death to America!" they chanted in the near 100 degrees heat. Their rage rose higher still as Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of Iran's parliament, called upon Allah to "avenge the blood" of nearly 300 Iranian pilgrims who had been killed a week earlier in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Rafsanjani also uttered a demand that sent a tremor through the Arab world and beyond: the rulers of Saudi Arabia, the keepers of Mecca, must be "uprooted."

Then came the hypnotic voice of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 87, still the country's supreme leader. Speaking in fierce whispers over nationwide radio, Khomeini first lashed out at the "inept and spineless" Saudi Arabian royal family. But he placed the blame for the bloody deaths in Mecca squarely on the U.S., still the "Great Satan" in the eyes of the fevered Iranian nation, and vowed vengeance. Promised Khomeini: "God willing, at the opportune time we shall deal with her."

That confrontation suddenly seemed at hand last week -- for America and for the world. Since he took power in 1979, the Ayatullah has threatened to spread his uncompromising brand of Islamic fundamentalism across the fragile, oil- rich states that line the Persian Gulf and to upset the global balance of power. He has sought his goals openly in Iran's seven-year war with Iraq, and he has promoted them stealthily through terrorist bombings and kidnapings abroad. Now Khomeini's brooding presence loomed larger than ever as he seemed ready, even eager, to take on a host of nations.

Angered by Washington's decision to reflag and escort Kuwaiti tankers through the gulf, Iran announced with great fanfare that it would stage four days of war games in the Strait of Hormuz, the entryway to the gulf. In case there was any doubt about the intent of the maneuvers, they were code-named "Martyrdom." One of the reflagged ships, the fully loaded Gas Prince, slipped quietly out of harm's way and toward its destination in Japan before the exercises began. But the supertanker Bridgeton, damaged last month by a mine that may have been planted by the Iranians, remained in Kuwait. Meanwhile, Washington found itself in the humiliating position of pleading with its European allies to send minesweepers to the gulf, a request that all spurned. At week's end the U.S. was rushing eight Sea Stallion minesweeping helicopters to the region, while three more Kuwaiti tankers moved into the gulf escorted by American warships.