Iran shrugs off U.S. warning

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 10

Iran shrugs off U.S. warning

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain Iran says that it will not accept conditions laid down by United States Navy ships in the Gulf and insists that Washington be responsible for any incident caused by American actions in the strategic waterway. The warning by an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman kept tension high in the Gulf region two days after an American destroyer fired warning shots at an Iranian plane over the Gulf and warned off an Iranian frigate without gunfire.

The Iranian statement, carried by the national news agency, Ima, did not specifically mention Monday’s incidents but appeared nevertheless to be the first Iranian response to them. The Ministry spokesman said that Iran, locked in a 41-month war with Iraq, would never recognise conditions laid down by United States Navy ships that all planes and vessels maintain a certain distance unless with prior consent.

But it remained to be seen whether the Iranians were prepared to turn the

verbal warning into a physical challenge by sending planes or ships close to American vessels. The Iranian statement said that any incident in the Gulf, “could also be a serious threat to the continuation of the present condition of this waterway (the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf) despite the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran to guard free traffic there.”

This appeared to be a veiled reiteration of Iran’s threats to close the Gulf if Iraq disrupted Iran’s vital oil exports from the water-

way. There was still no independent confirmation yesterday of Iraqi claims to nave attacked oil tankers at Iran’s big Kharg Island terminal near the head of the Gulf. American officials in Washington said yesterday that there was no evidence to support the Iraqi claim. There were no reports of any trouble by any international shipping sources. In Paris yesterday, the Iraqi First Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, said that his

country would attack any oil tankers heading towards Kharg Island. Responding to a question on what Iraq planned to do about three Japanese tankers earlier reported heading towards the terminal, he said: “We will attack all tankers that are heading towards the terminal That is not a tactical warning.” Mr Ramadan’s two-day official visit to Paris came amid tension over more possible incidents in the Gulf, while ground fighting continued on the mainland. Iran and Iraq claimed successes a week after Iran’s latest series of offensives.

Iraq said that its forces had foiled a fresh Iranian attack on Tuesay east of the southern Iraqi port of Basra, killing 2000 Iranian troops. Earlier in the day, an Iraqi Government Minister said that more than 30,000 Iranian troops had been killed in the last few days of fighting. The Iranians said that they had crushed Iraqi counter-offensives yesterday, killing 200 men in the central sector of the war front.