Reflagging to begin next week

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 11

Reflagging to begin next week

NZPA-Reuter Washington The White House is ready to begin its operation to protect 11 Kuwaiti ships in the Gulf next Wednesday despite deep fears in Congress that United States forces could be headed for war against Iran, key legislators said. Details of the plan were revealed at a briefing for Congressional leaders by a high-powered quartet made up of Secretary of State, George Shultz, Defence Secretary, Caspar Weinberger, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Crowe, and the National Security Adviser, Frank Carlucci. According to legislators who attended the briefing, President Reagan is determined to honour his commitment to Kuwait to put the United States flag on its tankers and have American forces protect them from Iranian attack, despite serious reservations about the policy in Congress. Representative Les Aspin, head of the House Armed Services Committee, said the legislators were told that the operation will begin “slowly” on July 22, with only one ship being escorted from the mouth of the Gulf to Kuwait, where it will be loaded with oil, and then back out of the waterway. The journey could take up to five-and-a-half days, they said. The next scheduled escort run will occur on August 6, with two others scheduled for later in August, Mr Aspin said. After the briefing, the White House said it could not confirm the dates provided to reporters by the legislators and chastised congressmen for releasing information from a classified briefing. Some legislators said, however, that the briefing was never labelled classified.

Republicans who had gone into the meeting

with concerns about the plan emerged in support of the operation, saying the Defence Department had drawn up contingency plans for every situation. Democrats, who earlier said that the White House failed to carefully assess the risks of the operation before agreeing to it, said they were still opposed to the plan and warned that it could cost American lives. “The Administration is making the same mistake they made when they put the Marines in Beirut,” a Tennessee Senator, Jim Sasser, said in reference to the 1983 suicide bombing of Marine barracks in the Lebanese capital, which left 241 American servicemen dead. Senator Sasser said Mr Shultz and the other officials failed to address key questions about the operation, including how long the escort service would last. Democrats have said they fear that Teheran could view the United States support for Kuwait — a backer of Iraq in its war with Iran — as a provocation and decide to retaliate. Kuwait sought protection for its ships after its vessels became targets for Iranian attack.

Critics fear an Iranian strike would prompt a United States reaction, sparking a violent cycle of tit-for-tat retaliation that could harm United States interests well beyond the Gulf.

Mr Reagan has said that he doubts that Iran will attack a United States flagged ship. But Mr Aspin warned that the real threat was probably not to the escorted ship but “a no-fingerprint attack on an embassy” or another action difficult to trace directly back to Teheran.

Iran is believed to have laid mines already in Kuwaiti waters to disrupt its oil exports.