Iran prepares to face U.S. warships

Press, 26 November 1979, Page 1

Iran prepares to face U.S. warships

NZPA-Reuter Teheran

Iran’s naval commander, Rear-Admiral Ahmad Madani, took up battle stations in .the Persian Gulf yesterday as powerful American warships approach Iran as part of a United States offensive to free 49 American hostages held by militant Muslin students there.

Iranian ground and air forces were also reported by local newspapers to be on the alert while President Carter and Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, kept up their verbal war. But there is no public panic from the prospects of the United States’ first military confrontation with its former ally

mainly because many feel that the United States would not risk an upheave! in the oil-rich Gulf with disastrous results for the world economy.

The fundamentalist students, who seized the United States Embassy in Teheran three weeks ago, said on Saturday that they were waiting for Ayatollah Khomeiny to set a date for the planned espionage trial of the American hostages. The pro-Khomeiny students have warned that the hostages and the embassy would be destroyed in no time if American military threats materialised.

President Carter on Saturday warned Iran of extremely grave con-

sequences if a single hostage was harmed. Diplomatic moves to defuse the situation continued, with Sri Lanka said to have announced that it would send its Foreign Minister to Teheran today to talk about the fate of the hostages with the Iranian authorities. The Algerian Foreign Minister is also due to visit Iran early next month.

Mr- Carter remained secluded at Camp David yesterday, monitoring the crisis as it entered its fourth week. Military action against Iran would present the United States with difficult choices compounded by problems of sustaining deliveries of ammunition,

fuel, food, and equipment. The probability that any of the alternatives under consideration could result in the death of most of the hostages is also acknowledged by the Pentagon.

There is general agreement that any mission intended to rescue the hostages would have to be made in strength. The ground-combat force closest to Iran is a Marine landing team of battalion strength, about 1500 men, now with the Sixth Fleet off the south coast of Turkey. The battalion is equipped with helicopters but the distance to Tereran is more than 1600 km, a long flight for such craft. An effective oper-

ation would require the use of a staging area at which the helicopters could be refuelled. Israel is the only country likely to provide such facilities but planners are aware that the use of Israeli airfields would inflame Muslim opinion against the United States and rally support behind Ayatollah Khomeiny. Fighter support is considered necessary for a successful rescue operation. United States Air Force fighters rotate through the Turkish base at Incirlik 12 at a time to use a nearby foreign range. But to escort invading helicopters and provide cover for an airborne attack stronger forces would be needed.

Sufficient fighters could be drawn from the 16th Air Force in Spain, Italy, and Greece to provide air cover but it is held that an effective operation would require more than a single Marine battalion.

The United States has four units of the Army’s Strategic Reserve available for use in Iran. They are the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Air Assault Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Ist Cavalry Division, an armoured unit, at Fort Hood, Texas, and the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington. The Strategic Reserve also includes the 2nd Marine Division and its supporting air wing stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

It is assumed that any intervention in Iran would be concerned more with logistical problems and with crowd control in Teheran than with opposition from Iranian forces. Desertions, the execution or retirement of officers, inadequate maintenance of equipment, and shortage of spare parts have robbed the Iranian forces of credibility as a combat element. The crowds in Teheran present a problem but not an insurmountable one. According to experienced officers, trained guerrillas can offer effective opposition to regular forces, as the American experienced in Vietnam. But a mob, no matter how well armed, is viewed as a less serious opponent.

Military opinion still favours an airborne drop on the United States Embassy accompanied by one at Teheran Airport. Both would be supported by fighter forces. But it is acknowledged that these operations would put the lives of the hostages at extreme risk. A less risky alternative is a blockade of Iran, specifically the oil-shipping terminal of Kharg in the Persian Gulf. The blockade would be imposed by the two carrier forces now moving towards the entrance of the Gulf.

One is led by the carrier Kitty Hawk, which has a normal complement of 85 fighter and attack planes and helicopters for anti-submarine missions.

The carrier Midway, with 75 planes aboard, heads the second task force. The two forces have almost no capability for landing operations.

Navy sources were reticent about the employment of the naval force, the largest deployed in the Indian Ocean since the Bangladesh war in 1971. Officers in the Atlantic alliance believe that its ultimate mission is to impose a blockade.

Such an operation would inevitably provoke protests from West Germany and Japan, two allies that are heavy consumers of Iranian oil, but diplomats said it might be possible through negotiation to win their agreement to a blockade lasting no more than two weeks. In the United States a black man wielding a knife hijacked an American Airlines 727 over Texas and demanded to be flown to Iran, according to the Federal Aviation Agency. The plane landed at El Paso. All women and children were released but the crew and 20 male passengers remained on board with the hijacker, who was negotiating with Federal agents.