Exiles plan assault on Iran

Iranian emigre sources here say exiled Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar has reached agreement with former generals of the dethroned Shah for a counterrevolution and military moves, based in Iraq, against the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's regime, Monitor correspondent John Cooley reports.

After several visits to Iraq and a meeting with Iraqi President Seddam Hussein in Baghdad, Mr. Bakhtiar met Tuesday in Paris, where he lives in exile, with Gen. Gholam Ali Oveissi and Gen. Ahmed Palizban, both of whom have been gathering forces and arms in Iraq for an Iraqi-supported strike against the Ayatollah, the emigres said.

"We know there are military units inside Iran which will support any serious move to restore order. The goal of such a movement would be to establish a military government for two to three years, followed by a popular referendum on the country's constitutional future," Ali Akhbar Tabatabai, spokesman for the Iran Freedom Foundation, which supports Mr. Bakhtiar's cause in the United States, told the Monitor.

The US State Department has shied away from backing Mr. Bakhtiar or the Iran Freedom Foundation, but General Oveissi did meet American officials during a visit to the US last month.