Kuwait Asks Britain to Reflag Ships

Kuwait today formally asked Britain to join the United States in reflagging a number of Kuwaiti oil tankers but received a cool reception.

A Foreign Office spokesman said an official from the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry asked the British ambassador in Kuwait for permission to reflag its tankers with the Union Jack, enabling them to sail under the protection of the Royal Navy.

The Kuwaiti was told such a move must be done through commercial shipping agents, the spokesman said.

“The ambassador told him that re-registering was not a matter for the British government,” the spokesman said. “Under British laws, it is done commercially. They must find a commercial company to re-register the ship.”

No Government Role

A Foreign Office source said there was no government involvement in such reflaggings “except I’m sure there would be some type of safety regulations to be complied with.”

The source said the response by British Ambassador to Kuwait Peter Hinchcliffe “was not a rejection.”

“It’s simply explaining to the Kuwaitis the correct way it can be done,” the source said.

In Tehran, meanwhile, the Iranian government threatened to attack and seize any Persian Gulf ports made available to U.S. warships, which are expected to begin escorting Kuwaiti tankers under U.S. flags next week.

The head of Kuwait’s oil tanker fleet said he expects a Kuwaiti vessel to reach the mouth of the gulf next Wednesday and join a supertanker already waiting there. They are to hoist American flags and be given a U.S. Navy escort.

Iran Warns U.S.

A dispatch from Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani as telling military commanders on Tuesday that “we will take American captives with their hands on their heads to prisoner-of-war camps” if U.S. ships intervene in the gulf.

It said Rafsanjani, addressing Arab nations in the region, declared, “If you put your bases or ports at the disposal of the United States, we would capture them and we would regard their seizure as being from American rather than from a neighboring state.”

Another IRNA dispatch quoted deputy commander Ali Shamkhani of the Revolutionary Guards as saying fanatical followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini would attack the U.S. warships.

“We would try as much as possible not to destroy them but to seize them intact to strengthen Iran’s naval potential,” he was quoted as saying.