WEST ASIA Iran, Iraq and the Gulf M A Saleem Khan THE Shah-Saddam handshake in Algiers in early March 1975 was not completely unexpected. Negotiations had been going on intermittently in Turkey, a friend of both Iran and Iraq, for the last many months. During his visit to Moscow, in November 1974, the Shah had affirmed that Iran would continue its efforts to settle its differences with Iraq through talks. Though border clashes continued to flare up from time to time1 and Iran's controlled support for the Kurdish rebels was known to persist, the reconciliation was effected finally through the good offices of President Boumedienne in Algiers.
