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GV Iranian ICCS members lining up at airport.
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SV Iranians with briefcases in line.
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SV Officer collecting papers from ICCS members.
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SV General Nguyen Hisp with other Vietnamese delegates from ICCS team walking towards Iranians.
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SV ICCS delegates including Poland and Indonesia welcoming new arrivals.
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CU PAN ALONG Iranian officers.
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Initials APSM/1626 APSM/16.40



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A contingent of about ninety Iranian troops joined the four-nation International Commission for he Control and Supervision of the ceasefire (ICCS) in South Vietnam on Wednesday (October 24th). They replace the Canadians, who withdrew in July, and their arrival means that the ICCS can now resume its supervision of Vietcong and South Vietnamese prisoner exchanges. The exchanges stopped in July.

The day before the arrival of the Iranians, the ICCS drafted a letter to the Saigon Government saying that they were now ready to start peace-monitoring operations again. The new contingent was welcomed at Tan Son Nhut airport, near Saigon, by the South Vietnamese delegate to the ICCS General Nguyen Hoa Hiep, and representatives of the three member countries - Poland, Hungary and Indonesia.

The Canadians withdrew because they felt that the ICCS was not given enough powers to enforce a ceasefire. The Saigon Government recently announced that 48,000 people have been killed since the ceasefire started on January 28th.

SYNOPSIS: A contingent of ninety Iranian troops arrived at Saigon airport on Wednesday, to join the International Commission for the control and supervision of the ceasefire in South Vietnam. They replace the Canadians who withdrew in July.

The ceasefire commission now has a full complement of four nations and can resume its supervision of prisoner exchanges between the South Vietnamese and the Vietcong, which were stopped in July.

The Iranians were greeted by delegates from Poland, Hungary and Indonesia - the other three ICCS member countries. The Commission has been inactive for three months as both sides have hurled accusations and counter-accusations of ceasefire violations at each other.

The Canadians withdrew because they said the Commission did not have enough powers to enforce the ceasefire. The Saigon Government recently announced forty-thousand people had been killed in the nine months of ceasefire.