Iran Vows Retaliation as Case of ‘Injured’ Diplomat Simmers On

NICOSIA, Cyprus —  Iran’s prime minister threatened Wednesday to retaliate for actions against Iranians in France, which he accused of pursuing “satanic policies” against his government.

Hussein Moussavi gave no specifics in his remarks, which were broadcast on Tehran radio and monitored in Cyprus. Iran accuses French Customs agents of beating an Iranian diplomat last weekend.

On Tuesday, Iranian officials ordered Paul Torri, the French consul in Tehran, to appear in an Islamic revolutionary court to answer allegations about espionage. His whereabouts Wednesday were not known.

Mohsen Aminzadeh, the Iranian diplomat, flew to Tehran on Wednesday night from Geneva and appeared to suffer convulsions as he was carried from a hospital on a stretcher to be taken to the plane. A Swiss doctor who pronounced the diplomat in good heath called the exit “a comedy.”

The Tehran broadcast quoted Moussavi as saying: “We have repeatedly declared that we are not prepared to put up with any pressure upon our citizens. Any pressure will lead to our retaliatory pressure. France has pursued some satanic policies against our system and is still continuing these policies.”

Iran issued the summons for Torri after charging that French agents beat Aminzadeh on Saturday at Geneva’s Cointrin airport, which straddles the border with France.

A dispatch from Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency said the French charge d’affaires in Tehran, Pierre La France, submitted a formal apology Tuesday for the alleged beating.

French officials in Paris denied that. They said that La France actually went to the Iranian Foreign Ministry to discuss an attack by Iranian gunboats on a French cargo vessel Monday in the Persian Gulf.

Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating since June 30, when Iranian interpreter Wahid Gordji took refuge at Iran’s embassy in Paris.

France insists that Gordji appear before a magistrate for questioning about terrorist bombings there last year, but the embassy has refused to turn him over.

Another element in the strained relations is France’s role as a major arms supplier to Iraq, with which Iran has been at war since September, 1980.

Moussavi’s deputy for political affairs, Alireza Moayyeri, said that French measures against Iranian diplomats brought efforts for normalizing relations to a “dead end,” the Iranian government news agency reported.

French police have been stopping Iranian diplomats for identity checks before allowing them in or out of the embassy in Paris. The tactic is said to be an attempt to catch Gordji if he tries to leave the building.

Iran said Aminzadeh was robbed, beaten “savagely” and “seriously injured” in the alleged incident at Geneva airport.

The Iranian mission notified reporters and television camera crews of his departure. As Aminzadeh seemed to be suffering convulsions, Iranian Consul General Massouleh Tale urged journalists: “Take pictures, film! See in what state he is!”

One journalist asked doctors whether Aminzadeh should make the trip to Iran in such a condition.

Dr. Rene Feuardent, a cardiologist who said he found Aminzadeh to be in good health, replied: “It’s a comedy. He is not an epileptic.”

Feuardent said Aminzadeh will not talk to physicians and had refused to eat since being admitted to a Paris hospital Monday night, soon after he checked out of a hospital in Geneva.

Doctors at the first hospital said that they found only a few small blue marks on his forehead and that hospitalization was not required.