ATTACK ON TANKER Israel determined to protect ships

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32633, 15 June 1971, Page 13

ATTACK ON TANKER Israel determined to protect ships

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) JERUSALEM, June 14. Israel today stood determined to protect the shipping lanes to all its ports after the shelling of an Israel-bound oil tanker at the entrance to the Red Sea. I The Prime Minister (Mrs Golda Meir) said yesterday that Israel would do all in its power to keep the lanes open after the incident on Friday when a launch fired a salvo of bazooka shells at the 78,120-ton Coral Sea in theßab el Mandeb Straits.

The Liberian tanker was today continuing its voyage under its own steam up the Red Sea to Eilat, at the head of the Gulf of Akaha, where it is due in the next 48 hours.

From there its cargo of oil will be trans-shipped through the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline to the Mediterranean and Europe. It was Egypt’s closing of the sealane to Eilat at the Straits of Tiran, where the Akaba Gulf enters the northern,end of the Red Sea, which was the principal cause of the six-day ArabIsraeli war in 1967. The attack on the Coral Sea was made more than 1000 miles south of Eilat as she was entering the narrow Bab El Mandeb Straits be-

tween the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Mrs Meir called on all maritime countries to take action to prevent such “terrorist activity” and a former chief of Israeli Army intelligence, General Haim Herzog, proposed setting up an international force to patrol the 11-miie wide Bab El Mandeb Straits.

The Coral Sea was slightly damaged in the attack and a fire was started, but there were no casualties among the crew of 37, of whom 23 are Israelis.

In Beirut, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine last night announced full responsibility for the shelling. A spokesman said that a front unit, which had set out from a base in Akaba, fired five rockets which hit the tanker at two points and set fire to its oil. He said that the front — which has conducted several operations outside Israel or Israeli-occupied territoryreiterated its strategy of “hitting at the Israeli enemy and his strategic interests and links with reaction everywhere.”

There was no hiding the gravity with which Israel’s leaders viewed the attempt to disrupt shipping to Eilat, a port considered vital for the country’s oil supplies and general economy. “Israel will take all measures necessary to safeguard free civilian navigation

to her ports,” said an official statement issued after a Cabinet meeting yesterday. I It was not clear what I action Israel would take if such attacks were repeated. Observers in Jerusalem pointed out that its Navy I might not have the back-up power to function at the southern end of the Red Sea. But they noted that Bab El Mandeb and any nearby bases that might be used for attacks on Israel-bound shipping were within range of planes of Israel’s Air Force.