ABSTRACT
On January 9, 1987, the Soviet government strongly appealed to both Iran and Iraq to end the Gulf war. Iran had been concerned for some time about growing Soviet interest in the Gulf region. Although measured progress was made in restoring Soviet-Iranian economic ties, the political and ideological differences between the two neighbors continued to rule out any genuine rapprochement. Two major stumbling blocks remained: Moscow's position on the Iran-Iraq war and Teheran's condemnation of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The major obstacle to Soviet efforts to find peace in the Persian Gulf remained the Iranian theocracy's determination to fight the war until the government of Iraqi President Hussein was brought down. According to Soviet officials who accompanied Vorontsov, a draft plan was submitted to both Iranian and Iraqi officials calling for a truce in the tanker war and for negotiations between Iranian and Iraqi delegations in Moscow to discuss conditions for ending the seven-year war.
