ABSTRACT
An account of the interaction between Iranians and Afghans in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution should be approached with caution. People do not know enough of the Iranian policy-making process or of the interaction of Iranian and Afghan mojahedin. One indication of the importance of the Gulf war was Iran’s purchase of military equipment from the Soviet Union even in the immediate wake of the invasion of Afghanistan. Similarly, economic relations with the Soviet Union increased in 1980–1981 when US-Iranian relations deteriorated after the hostage crisis and the US economic embargo. Toward the end of 1982, when the Iranians began to do better in the war, interests diverged and Soviet-Iranian relations deteriorated again; the Soviets opposed the Iranian continuation of the war after the Iraqis had been thrown out of most of the Iranian territory they had previously held. As relations between the Soviets and Iranians worsened, the Iranian policy toward Afghanistan changed.
