Iran Admits It Mined Gulf but Says It Was for Defense

Iran acknowledged for the first time Thursday night that it has mined the Persian Gulf, but it insisted that the explosive devices were planted only to protect Iranian coastal installations and did not inflict damage to oil tankers recently struck by mines in the Sea of Oman and on the western side of the gulf.

“As long as there are foreign forces in the gulf, it is quite natural to use such means to block approaches,” Kamal Kharazi, spokesman for the Iranian Supreme Defense Council and head of its War Information Center, told a news conference. “But use of mines by Iran was not designed to block freedom of navigation.”

He added: “We believe there are different kinds of mines in the Persian Gulf. Some may be U.S. mines, some may be Iraqi mines and some may be Iranian mines. In order to defend ourselves, we use mines.”

Kharazi, believed to speak with the full authority of Iran’s Islamic leadership, thus provided the first Iranian explanation of its role in the gulf mining that has provoked the major buildup of U.S. and European naval forces and raised tensions to a dangerous level in the critical waterway.

In response to questions, Kharazi specifically denied Iranian responsibility for mines that have hit commercial vessels in the Sea of Oman and in gulf shipping lanes leading to Kuwait.

He did not say exactly where Iran has sown mines, depicting the deployment as a move to protect Iranian ports and facilities on the Iranian side of the gulf.

Kharazi added that Tehran does not oppose the U.S. decision to escort re-registered Kuwaiti tankers in and out of the gulf but said that “the United States is trying to find justification for its presence” in the region.

Western governments have expressed the belief that small Iranian craft laid the mines that have damaged shipping. The Reagan Administration formally accused Iran of planting the mine that hit a U.S.-operated supertanker, the Texaco Caribbean, on Aug. 10. The vessel, of Panamanian registry, was carrying a load of Iranian crude oil when it was damaged.