Congressmen Meet With Kuwait Leaders : Delegation Holds Talks on Plan to Escort Gulf State’s Oil Tankers

A U.S. congressional delegation conferred with Kuwaiti leaders Saturday on a plan for U.S. warships to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers flying the American flag.

The delegation, led by Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, includes 11 other congressmen and 15 staff members. It is seeking to evaluate the risks involved in the plan to re-register 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers as American ships and to provide them with U.S. Navy escorts in the gulf.

Members met Saturday with the Kuwaiti oil minister, Sheik Ali al Khalifa al Sabah, and the foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah.

U.S. Ambassador Anthony C. E. Quainton said in an interview published Saturday that the United States would respond if American-flag vessels were hit in the gulf, but he refused to comment on specific measures that U.S. commanders would take in an attack.

“The United States recognizes that there is some degree of risk in its decision to provide protection to an increased number of American-flag vessels,” Quainton said.

“Our actions are not designed to be provocative,” he told the English-language Arab Times newspaper, adding that he does not think the plan would draw the United States into a fight with Iran.

Consider Other Requests

“There is no reason why there should be conflict with the government of Iran over the protection of our own vessels in international waters,” the ambassador said in an allusion to congressional fears over the plan.

He also was quoted as saying that Washington would consider requests to escort ships of other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional alliance of Persian Gulf Arab nations.

Kuwaiti tankers have been especially prone to attack from Iranian ships and planes because the gulf island state is a close ally of Iraq. The U.S. operation to protect them is expected to begin in less than two weeks.

The reflagging plan ran into congressional opposition after the U.S. Navy frigate Stark was badly damaged in an Iraqi missile attack May 17 that killed 37 American sailors.

The official Kuwaiti News Agency said Aspin’s team inquired about the technical aspects of shipping Kuwaiti oil.

It also quoted unidentified oil officials as saying that the delegation discussed having the U.S. Navy escort the reflagged tankers to points outside the gulf. It said the reflagged tankers would be unloading their oil onto other tankers that would take the cargoes to customers around the world.

Shipping sources in the gulf had said the reflagged tankers would be picking up their Navy escorts outside the Strait of Hormuz before moving through the gulf.

On Thursday and Friday, the delegation was in Bahrain to confer with Rear Adm. Harold Bernsen, commander of the Middle East Force, whose ships will escort the reflagged Kuwaiti tankers.