A DEAL BETWEEN FRANCE AND IRAN - 16-Aug-94

Commentary by Ron Ben-Yishai - "Yediot Ahronot", August 16, 1994, p. 4.

There is a bad smell surrounding the extradition of Carlos.

This is the smell of a deal between the French government, which must now prove to its electorate that it is fighting terror, and Sudan which is one of the Middle Eastern states that wants to clear its name in the international arena.

The radical Islamic regime of Sudan which agreed to extradite Carlos to France hosts the largest training camps for Iranian terrorists on its soil. Under the instruction of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, members of Islamic Jihad and Hamas as well as Egyptian and other fundamentalists

are trained there. How is it that Sudan suddenly consented to extradite a wanted terrorist, who apparently arrived there with the encouragement and assistance of Iran or Syria?

The explanation might be found in one of two possibilities:

* The first possibility is that the Iranians may have encouraged Sudan, which is sustained by the Iranian regime, to sacrifice Carlos. The Iranians know that the French government is now pressured to demonstrate that, after the murder of its diplomats in Algiers, it is effectively fighting terrorism. Tehran owes the French. About one year ago, the French released a number of Iranian murderers who were apprehended in France. Two of the Iranians had murdered Shahpur Bakhtiar, the former Prime Minister of Iran, who was exiled and had received asylum in France. The other two murdered another opponent of the Iranian regime in Geneva. Mitterrand explained the release of the murderers as a 'supreme national interest.' He did not give details. The truth may now come to light.

* The second possibility is that Syria may have encouraged Sudan to get rid of the Marxist terrorist, who is of no value to the Islamic revolution anyway. In any event, Western intelligence sources believe that the extradition was not effected because Sudan has suddenly become an advocate of international law.

As to Israel, we have had no special interest in Carlos for some time. His name never appeared high on Israel's list of wanted terrorists. He was not party to the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Nor did he have a hand in the Air France hi-jacking to to Entebbe. Despite the fact that he has maintained close links to the PFLP, he has carried out very few attacks against Israel, Israeli citizens or Jews.

Very reliable Western sources have attributed an attempted 1975 attack against an El-Al airliner at Orly airport in France to Carlos, and maybe one or two other attempted attacks in Europe. That's all.

Israel and the Jews did not particularly interest Carlos. He provided logistical and consulting services to Palestinian terrorists and received services from them but it was the 'capitalist regimes' of Western Europe and the Middle East which interested him most. These, he sought to eradicate, in order to advance the international Socialist revolution.

Apparently, the myth that was constructed around Carlos bore no proportion to his actions. Still, he is worthy of the 'master terrorist' title.

During his career, which continued for about 20 years, he has had scores of casualties to his 'credit.' He cooperated with the underground Baader Meinhof gang, which operated against the democratic-capitalist regime in West Germany. For the same reasons, he operated in France. He killed two French secret service agents who tries to arrest him. Afterward, the French angered him when they arrested his wife a terrorist in her own right in the early 1980s. He demanded her release and, when this was not fulfilled, he carried out a series of fatal terrorist attacks in France; 15 people were killed.

Then, he leased his services to the East German 'Stasi', to Romania's Ceaucescu and to Czechoslovakian intelligence. All of these rewarded him handsomely, and provided with him the diplomatic documents necessary to move around the world freely under a false identity.

When the Communist regimes in Europe collapsed, Carlos lost his source of income and was forced to wander. He sought new masters and asylum for himself, his family and some of his personnel. With the warm recommendation of Stasi personnel, the Syrians received Carlos with open arms toward the end of the 1980s. But the Americans, who did not take a kind view of this, pressured the Syrians who politely asked him to leave. He drifted with his family to Libya, later found asylum in Yemen, and there have been rumors of late that he had arrived in Iran.