KHOMEINI SAYS CEASE-FIRE DECISION HIS

breath," Khomeini said in a declaration relayed by the official radio.

The decision, he said, "is based only on the interest of the Islamic

republic."

Khomeini's statement, his first since the Iranian reversal announced

Monday, sounded like an acknowledgement that Iran is unable to continue

the eight-year-old conflict even though the ordinarily unyielding

Islamic patriarch would like to. Whether intentionally or not, it also

constituted a direct reply to Iraqi objections that Iran's new policy

could be only a tactic to play for time. "Our aim is not a new tactic to

continue the war," he said.

"Making this decision was deadlier than swallowing poison," Khomeini

said at another point. "I submit myself to God's will and drank this

drink for His satisfaction."

Khomeini's remarks were seen as important for various reasons.

Primarily, they associated him inextricably with the Iranian

government's acceptance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 598 calling

for an immediate cease-fire, pullback to recognized borders and

negotiations for a durable peace with the government in Iraq that

Khomeini repeatedly has vowed to overthrow.

Iraqi officials had expressed concern that Monday's acceptance was

attributed to parliament speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the

overall military commander, rather than to the 88-year-old spiritual

leader whose words are incontrovertible in the Iranian revolution. Not

until Khomeini has spoken out, they had told diplomats here, would the

Iranian people embrace as final the decision to end the long Persian

Gulf war.

Also, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government has warned that

Iran could be pretending to accept the cease-fire and peace talks as a

way to recover from a recent series of military setbacks. A message

attributed to him today said Iraq will judge the sincerity of Iranian

intentions by Tehran's willingness to negotiate for a complete peace

agreement once the cease-fire is in effect.

Against that background, Khomeini's pledge that the Iranian

acceptance is not just a tactic was seen as significant.

The Iranian leader's statement also marked a sharp departure because

of the impression it conveyed that events have forced Khomeini to put

aside his often-stated goal of replacing Saddam Hussein's secular Baath

Party government with an Islamic system patterned after the Shiite

Moslem fundamentalism that rules Iran.

Since he took over Iran after the fall of the shah in 1979, Khomeini

has been unswerving in determination to promote his version of Islam.

Since the war with Iraq began in September 1980, he also has sworn to

punish Saddam Hussein and uproot what the Iranian has decried as a

godless political philosophy in Iraq.

Khomeini's public suspension of this crusade suggested he has

listened to advisers warning that Iran cannot go on devoting such a

large portion of its resources to the war and trying to build its

Islamic revolution in isolation from Moslem neighbors around the gulf,

diplomats said. Although little is known about debate within the Tehran

leadership, Rafsanjani often has been cited as a pragmatist compared to

others at the top of Iran's hierarchy.

But Khomeini coupled his stand-down on the gulf war with a more

traditional vow that his radical Shiism will triumph eventually over

more moderate nations. In a remark apparently aimed at Saudi Arabia, he

said: "Iran's Moslem people . . . will shortly celebrate the triumph of

righteousness over the army of unbelievers and hypocrites and will set

foot on the Moslem holy shrine."

Saudi Arabia's royal family has regarded itself as guardian of

Islam's holiest shrines at Mecca and Medina. It has quarreled repeatedly

with Iran over behavior of Iranian pilgrims during the annual Moslem

pilgrimage season, which is just winding down.

At the same time, Khomeini warned that accepting the cease-fire does

not mean the war is automatically over. Diplomats here also have

cautioned that Iran and Iraq have a long list of border disputes and

other differences to resolve in addition to the clash of political

systems and the enmity built up over eight years of bloodshed.

"Accepting the resolution does not mean the question of war has been

solved," Khomeini said, according to the radio. "By declaring this

decision, we have blunted the propaganda weapon of the world's gobblers

against us. But one cannot forecast the course of events with

certainty."

Khomeini, in threats more reminiscent of his earlier rhetoric, also

warned U.S. and European naval forces to leave the gulf now that Iran

has accepted the truce. He said they should depart "before it is too

late and you are drowned in a quagmire of death."

Despite new hopes for a lasting cease-fire, the Iranian military

command reported two Iraqi ground attacks against positions at

Piranshahr, on the northern front, and at Mehran on the central front.

The Iranian communique, which was not confirmed here by Iraqi military

authorities, was the first charge of significant ground fighting since

the cease-fire was accepted.

Both Iran and Iraq reported air attacks on economic targets for the

second straight day, however, in a sign that neither side is willing to

stop the fighting before U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar

formally arranges a truce. He has said the process will take at least a

week or 10 days.

A pair of Iranian F4 Phantoms attacked the Dukan Dam in northern

Iraq, according to both capitals, while Iraq reported its jets bombed

two oil pumping stations in southwest Iran. There have been no reports

of attacks on gulf shipping since the cease-fire was accepted.

{Italy said it will cut its six-vessel naval fleet in the Persian

Gulf by one frigate because of an agreement reached with merchant

shipping companies, and Defense Minister Valerio Zanone added that

Iran's acceptance of the cease-fire plan raised the prospect that the

entire fleet could be brought home, Reuter reported.

{In London, a Foreign Office official said Iran's decision "could

mark the beginning of the end" of the gulf war but that Britain intended

to keep its naval patrol there until it was sure the war was over.}