U.S. Navy readies to sweep mines from key Gulf channel

Press, 28 July 1987, Page 10

U.S. Navy readies to sweep mines from key Gulf channel

NZPA-Reuter. Kuwait The United States yesterday prepared to begin clearing mines from a key channel in the northern Gulf where the reflagged Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton was holed last Friday.

The United States commander in the Gulf, Rear Admiral Harold Bernsen, held talks with Kuwaiti officials on ways to clear a deep-water shipping lane near Iran’s Farsi island, one of the narrowest and most dangerous in the Gulf. Diplomatic sources said the plan was likely to involve use of United States helicopter-based mine hunting or sweeping equipment from American warships. United States Defence Secretary, Caspar Weinberger, said in Washing-

ton it was not yet certain that a mine struck the 401,382-tonne Bridgeton while it was sailing toward Kuwait on a maiden voyage under the United States flag.

He said the United States has “a minesweeping capability in the Persian Gulf and it can be increased and will be increased.”

United States officials had said earlier the Bridgeton, sailing towards Kuwait with the smaller Kuwaiti tanker Gas Prince and three U.S. warships, had almost certainly hit an Iranian mine.

Iran has stepped up attacks on Kuwaiti shipping in retaliation for the emirate’s support for Bagdad in the seven-year-old Iran-Iraq war. In response, Kuwait asked help from the five

permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and put 11 of its tankers under the United States flag to benefit from American naval protection in the Gulf.

Kuwait has also chartered four Gibraltarflag tankers which enjoy British protection and three from the Soviet Union.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xi Huwai Yuan told the Kuwait News Agency KUNA, on arrival for a three-day visit his country was also studying a Kuwaiti request to lease or reflag tankers. France has declined to protect Kuwaiti tankers, but has ordered its Mediterranean fleet on 24-hour alert because of increased tension in the Gulf.

Diplomats said mineclearing near Farsi had been complicated by the

absence of available minesweepers. The United States does not have enough in active service and Saudi Arabia, which has four, will not use them in international waters. “The mission of Saudi minesweepers is confined to carrying out duties within conventional territorial waters,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted an official as saying. In previous minesweeping near the approach channel to Kuwait’s main oil port of Mina al-Ahmadi, United States sonar equipment was used with Kuwaiti helicopters. Diplomats said the Farsi channel, 150 miles south-east of the emirate, was too far away for Kuwait-based helicopters. Kuwait, meanwhile, waited for the United

States Coast Guard to allow the Bridgeton, anchored 4 miles off Mina al-Ahmadi, to load crude oil in its undamaged tanks.

The Gas Prince was to start loading 40,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas bound for Japan. Both tankers could leave Kuwait for a convoy journey down the Gulf on Friday, shipping sources said.