The recent efforts of the Soviet Union to mediate peace between nations of the Middle East is admirable, even if such moves seem somewhat premature considering existing conditions. However, in dealing with Iran, the USSR is becoming a little too friendly.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze completed a diplomatic visit to Teheran on Monday, after which his country and Iran issued a series of mutually supportive statements. “Conditions are ripe for relations between our two countries to enter a qualitatively new stage of cooperation in all fields,” Shevardnadze announced.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini said it was also his wish that Soviet-Iranian relations would blossom in the near future to help fend off threats posed by the “devilish” West. The Iranian leader also urged Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to embrace the Islamic faith to escape his problems.

Khomeini’s pro-USSR rhetoric is surely surprising to anyone who has followed the course of Iranian diplomacy regarding the Soviet Union during the last 10 years. In short, Khomeini has spent the last decade blessing the USSR in the same reverent tones with which he has praised the United States.

The Soviet Union’s newfound eagerness to work with Iran could be detrimental to the favorable world diplomacy Gorbachev has worked to build through glasnost. Many European powers have withdrawn their envoys from Iran for good reason—the recent international flap over Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses shows Iran has little regard for human rights.

In making one new friend, the USSR could be alienating many others.