Won’t Fire on Gulf Ships Unless Provoked, Iran Says

Iran’s foreign minister today promised that his country won’t fire on any ships in the Persian Gulf unless provoked by another nation.

Ali Akbar Velayati, in Bonn for talks with Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, also said Iran will not accept any U.N. cease-fire resolution in the gulf war unless it names Iraq as the aggressor in the nearly 7-year-old conflict.

“If Iranian ships are not subjected to attack, if no ships are attacked by the Iraqis, no ships will be attacked in the Persian Gulf,” Velayati told a news conference.

“I say this despite the fact that the presence of the U.S. fleet (in the gulf) is a factor contributing to the escalation of tension,” he added.

Velayati, speaking in Farsi, said the U.S. decision to reflag Kuwaiti tankers and escort them through the gulf with American warships “was a way of increasing (U.S.) support for the Iraqi government.”

“What the United States is doing in the Persian Gulf by supplying Kuwaiti ships is increasing its military presence in the gulf,” Velayati said. “This was also a way of increasing support for the Iraqi government and this is not acceptable to us.”

The U.S. warships in the gulf are “a threat to Iran,” he said, sidestepping queries about how his country would respond.

The U.N. resolution, approved unanimously Monday by the 15-member Security Council, did not take the views of Iran into account, he said.

The foreign minister said a prerequisite for Iran’s acceptance of any Security Council resolution was the naming of Iraq as the aggressor in the gulf war.

“If such a thing happens, then we will take part seriously in the United Nations Security Council deliberations,” he said.