France to Send 3 Sophisticated Mine-Hunting Ships to Gulf

France said Friday it will send three sophisticated mine-hunting ships to the Persian Gulf region, one more than previously announced.

The three ships and a support vessel will leave Toulon, a Mediterranean port, on Monday afternoon on a voyage expected to take about two weeks, a Defense Ministry spokesman said in Paris.

Meanwhile, Iran said it was starting “minesweeping maneuvers” in international waters of the Persian Gulf on Friday using divers and helicopters.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted a senior navy officer as saying that with Iran’s minesweeping abilities, which apparently consist of two minesweepers, there was “no need for foreign powers to interfere in the region.”

Blames U.S. for Mines

The Tehran government blames the United States for the mines found in the Persian Gulf and in the Gulf of Oman, while Washington and shipping sources in the region say they believe Iran laid the explosive devices.

Regional military sources said the mines, a 1908 Russian model upgraded in 1938, sold to North Korea several decades ago then resold to Iran, were newly laid because no marine life had gathered on their surface.

“You can tell (they were just placed) because they are all shiny,” one said.

As Iran started up its minesweeping operation, officials of the United Arab Emirates said they had declined an Iranian offer of minesweeping assistance in the area off the port of Fujaira, where the U.S.-owned tanker Texaco Caribbean was damaged when it struck a mine last Monday.

“The United Arab Emirates will continue to use its own resources and efforts to clear its waterways of any obstacles to ensure safety for international shipping,” the Emirates said in a statement reported by its national news agency.

Memorandum for Envoy

A dispatch from the Gulf News Agency, a Bahrain-based news organization, said the rejection was contained in a memorandum handed to the Iranian ambassador on Friday.

Coast guard patrols of the Emirates and Oman, supported by a Saudi minesweeper, continued searching for mines Friday just outside the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

The Emirates briefly imposed an exclusion zone around its eastern coastal area on Thursday and deployed air and sea units to look for more explosive charges in the Gulf of Oman. The ban was lifted after a few hours, and officials of the gulf federation declared the waters safe for travel.

However, shipping executives said few ships ventured into the area Friday. A port official in Fujaira said there were three in port, compared with dozens on normal days.

A Saudi shipping official summed up what seems to be the prevailing view on travel in the area: “I cannot believe we are through with the mines. They seem to be everywhere: inside the (Persian) Gulf, outside the gulf. I think that what the Fujaira port people are saying is that, at the moment, there are no mines in their waters.”

Chevron Bars Tankers

In San Francisco, Chevron confirmed earlier reports from gulf sources that it had barred its tankers from the Fujaira facility until further notice. Mobil Oil has done the same.

“We are not going to take our ships into anchorage there until we’re sure the mine problem has been resolved,” a Chevron spokesman said.

In another development from the region Friday, the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed ibn Sultan al Nuhayan, was reported preparing to visit Syrian President Hafez Assad in an effort to seek Assad’s help in persuading Tehran to ease tensions in the gulf.

The Emirates News Agency said Sheik Zayed will leave Abu Dhabi today for a three-day official visit. The agency said only that he would discuss “Arab and Islamic issues” with Assad. It is his first official visit to the Syrian capital in several years.

Friday’s Defense Ministry announcement in Paris identified the three French mine hunters to be deployed in the gulf region as the Vinh Long, Cantho and Garigliano. They will be joined by the support ship La Garonne.

Unmanned Submarines

Unlike conventional minesweepers, the mine hunters can deploy miniature unmanned submarines to find mines and detonate them with explosive charges. Most minesweepers simply drag a sweep behind them to cut the cables of mines, allowing them to bob to the surface where they can be destroyed.

Defense Minister Andre Giraud announced Tuesday that the mine hunters Cantho and Garigliano, with the support vessel La Garonne, would be ordered to join a naval squadron already on its way to the gulf region. The Vinh Long, part of the same squadron, was added on Friday.

Giraud’s announcement Tuesday was made soon after Britain said it would send four vessels to help clear mines in areas traveled by British naval and merchant ships. Britain and France earlier had refused U.S. requests for such help.

Also in Paris, the secretary general of the Arab League, Chedli Klibi, said the organization’s foreign ministers will hold a special meeting in Tunis on Aug. 23 to discuss the “extremely worrying” situation in the gulf.