Iran Gains More Arms Suppliers While Iraq’s Sources Dwindle

The number of countries supplying weapons for the Persian Gulf war has increased significantly in three years--with Iran’s sources multiplying while Iraq’s have dwindled, an arms trade specialist said Tuesday.

Walter Stuetzle, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the rising number of suppliers make it seem unlikely that a U.N. arms embargo could stop the fighting.

“The arms export business is blooming . . . in fact, there has been a very interesting development. In 1984, only 40 (countries) delivered to both; today it is 53,” he told a West German radio interviewer.

In addition to those countries that sell to both sides, a number of nations supply just one or the other. “In 1984,” he said, “Iraq had 19 supporters, today it has only nine. Iran had 11 supporting countries, now it has 16.”

Stuetzle said China is the main supplier to both sides. China supplies Iraq through Egypt and Iran through North Korea. Sales to date total more than $1 billion, he said.