Boiling Point in the Gulf

After a 25-day pause, Iraq has resumed its air attacks against Iranian oil installations, scorning an American plea for a continued suspension of attacks on economic targets. Iran’s response, quick and expected, came in a promise to renew its own economic warfare against Iraq’s friends and allies. Foremost among these is Kuwait, whose billions of dollars in subsidies have helped keep Iraq from collapse and whose oil tankers now sail under the protection of the U.S. flag. By resuming economic warfare, Iraq has made certain that the Persian Gulf will become a more dangerous place. Among those most exposed to greater dangers will be the U.S. ships that are there to protect Iraq’s friends.

The heightened risks to shipping aren’t confined to the Persian Gulf, however. With mines presumably planted by Iran being detected in the Gulf of Oman, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, the war zone has been considerably extended. Ironically, and indicative of the lunatic self-destructiveness of the Iran-Iraq war, the first victim of a mine in the Gulf of Oman was a tanker with a cargo of Iranian oil. Scores of other tankers are currently at anchor in the northern Gulf of Oman. Some would normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz to collect Iranian oil for movement to world markets. The new mine threat, though, could keep these ships at their anchorage, at least for the time being. If that happens--another irony--Iran could see its oil revenues fall sharply.

The prospect of an expanded threat to international shipping has at least had one welcome result. Britain and France have reversed themselves and decided to send some minesweepers to the area after all, specifically to help protect their own merchant ships and naval vessels. Both have taken care to indicate that they will conduct more or less independent operations, unaffiliated with the United States and its open-ended commitment to safeguard the Persian Gulf’s sea lanes.

With this, Britain and France have shown a foresight and prudence that notably escaped officials of the Reagan Administration when they made their big leap into the Persian Gulf. British and French minesweepers will be in the gulf not at the self-serving invitation of a third country, and certainly not--horrors--to ensure that the waterway doesn’t become a Soviet lake. They’ll be there solely in support of their own national interests, and that means that they can decide for themselves when their job is over with so they can go home. By avoiding sweeping pronouncements, dire warnings and dubious affiliations, the allies have left themselves a lot of freedom to maneuver. That, as someone should have earlier pointed out to American policy-makers, is the way to do it.