U.S. to Explore Use of Leased Barges in Gulf

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have asked the Navy to explore the possibility of using leased barges to support minesweeping operations in the Persian Gulf, officials said Friday.

The request was part of a logistics planning effort focusing on long-term support for U.S. forces in the gulf, added the officials, who asked not to be identified. The Navy will be determining if barges could be leased and anchored in the gulf to store food, fuel and other needed equipment.

Meanwhile, Iran scoffed at the threat of a U.N.-ordered arms embargo, saying it has flight-tested its first home-produced plane and vowing to continue its war with Iraq.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, in a broadcast monitored in Cypress, quoted Mohsen Rafighdost, minister in charge of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, as saying the nation’s first domestically produced aircraft has been successfully flight-tested.

Information pieced together from Iranian statements, Western intelligence reports and other sources indicate that Iran is also manufacturing relatively primitive surface-to-surface missiles, rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and mortars.

At the same time, Tehran radio said that Iranian Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi, speaking at a meeting of officials in charge of the war effort, urged them to “be fully prepared” for a “direct conflict” with the United States in the gulf.

‘Critical Juncture’

“All the country’s resources should be mobilized for this cause,” Moussavi said in the broadcast, also monitored in Cyprus. Moussavi was quoted as saying that the war with Iraq is at “its most critical juncture.”

His comments were seen by Western analysts as an apparent rejection of a July 20 U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Iraq and other Arab nations have urged the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with the cease-fire. The United States has also been consulting with other members of the 15-nation Security Council on the possibility of sanctions against Iran, including an arms embargo.