Egypt Can’t Identify Mines, Diplomats Say

Egypt has never been able to determine which country or group was responsible for sowing the mines that damaged shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez last summer, partly because of Moscow’s failure to respond to a British request, Western diplomats here said Monday.

The British Foreign Office made the request in writing after a Soviet-made mine was found by British divers in the Gulf of Suez last September. No one suspected the Soviet Union of laying the mine, which was described as a 10-foot-long metal cylinder with a 21-day timing device that was manufactured in or about 1981.

But London asked Moscow to supply any information it might have that would indicate to which country the mine was initially sold or given. Moscow did not reply, the diplomats said, and thus Egypt--which suspects Libya or Iran of responsibility--has not be able to establish culpability.

19 Ships Damaged A total of 19 merchant ships were damaged in July and August by mines presumably planted by terrorists in the Red Sea, a key international navigation route that connects the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean by way of the Suez Canal. Most of the damage to the vessels was relatively minor.

The crisis over the mines--which did not dramatically affect shipping on the waterway or in the canal--resulted in Egypt’s asking for Western assistance to sweep the shipping lanes to make them safe for navigation and to try to find clues that would help fix responsibility for the mining.

Ships from the United States, Britain, France and Italy, as well as several Soviet minesweepers acting independently, spent more than two months combing the area from the mouth of the Suez Canal southward to the coast of South Yemen. Only one mine was found--the Soviet-made device, retrieved by divers working off a British minesweeper.

Demolition experts transported the device to Britain for further study, but neither Egypt nor Britain has released full details of their investigations.

It is believed that all the planted mines were equipped with timing devices and that by now, all that were planted have detonated.