Iraq accuses Iran of massing troops in havens

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 10

Iraq accuses Iran of massing troops in havens

NZPA-AP Manama, Bahrain Iraq has accused Iran of using residential areas, protected by a freeze on shelling, to mass troops for its expected offensive. The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Tarek Aziz, made the accusation in a message to the United Nations Secre-tary-General, Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar, who mediated the agreement to ban attacks on residential areas in the two warring States. United Nations observers were arranging for monitoring the pause and, as well, Iraq accused Iran of violating the agreement for the third time. In its statement about

Iranian troops, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry quoted Mr Aziz as telling Mr Perez de Cuellar that Iran was, “using the towns of Abadan and Mohammara (Khorramshahr) as staging-points for the expected offensive.” Mr Aziz, in a previous message to Mr Perez de Cuellar, had specifically noted that military personnel and facilities “should not be deployed in or near residential centres to avoid involving such (civilian) areas in the war.” The statement said that Mr Aziz had asked the Secretary-General to “take immediate measures to check the matter.” ' Kuwait said yesterday

that the United States rejection of its request for Stinger missiles was regrettable, but it could buy weapons elsewhere. The United States, which provided Saudi Arabia with 400 of the shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles, says that it will not supply Kuwait with the weapon yet because it fears the weapon might fall into Palestinian hands. Kuwait is the strongest Arab supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

“The arms market is open,” said the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Mr Abdel-Aziz Hussein, apparently alluding to the Soviet Union, whose Foreign

Minister has been invited to visit Kuwait. The Kuwait Army has some Soviet-sup-plied, SAM 7 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

Meanwhile a Chilean arms maker had sent a new shipment of cluster-bombs to Iraq, a company spokesman said. But Daniel Prieto, the spokesman for Cardoen Explosives SA would not say how many bombs were sent.

He confirmed that an Iraqi jet, which landed at the Santiago Airport on Thursday, had picked up the second known shipment of cluster bombs to Iraq and flown back to Iraq. _