Ghotbzadeh sees peril in Soviet Afghan position

Foreign Minister Sadeq Ghotbzadeh says Soviet troops in Afghanistan are within 20 miles of the Iranian border and pose a serious danger to Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and to Baluchistan. He told reporters after a regular meeting of the ruling Revolutionary Council he feared that the Kremlin might invoke its 1921 treaty with Iran, whereby Moscow has the right to intervene militarily if Iran is used as a base of military operations against the Soviet Union.

But he turned down a reported US offer to normalize American-Iranian relations in a bid to concentrate on facing the Soviet threat.