Iranian exiles say drive is on to topple Khomeini

The Sunday Times of London quoted Iranian exiles who said a campaign was under way to overthrow the Islamic republic of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Exiles said a counterrevolution was being plotted and led by Gen. Gholam Ali Oveissi, the former Iranian Army commander who left Iran in January 1979. An expatriate underground was based on the former ruling caste in Iran, the paper said.

Spokesmen for Iranian exiles in Paris, the principal center for opposition, claimed that they could muster a volunteer force of 90,000 to be led by an officer cadre in Iran, and that they believed the prerevolutionary Imperial Army , which the Sunday Times described as still surprisingly intact, would side with them.