Missile Attacks Spotlight Loopholes in Gulf Policy

The missile attacks this week on American shipping off the coast of Kuwait have dramatized weaknesses in the U.S. policy designed to protect shipping in the dangerous waters of the Persian Gulf and sparked calls for broader American military protection of U.S. interests in the vital region.

Officials of U.S. shipping firms operating in the gulf have complained bitterly that the limits of U.S. policy have been so narrowly drawn as to leave them unprotected. Critics in Congress have predicted that Iran would continue to exploit loopholes in the policy.

Current policy and military rules of engagement allow commanders in the region to protect only ships registered by the United States. Because most U.S.-owned ships are steering clear of the Persian Gulf,Analysis

the protection applies almost entirely to the 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers that have been re-registered to fly the American flag.

More than that, the 12 Navy ships in the gulf are under orders to provide escorts only when the 11 tankers or other U.S.-flagged ships are moving in international waters.

The U.S.-owned supertanker Sungari, which was hit Thursday, fell outside the U.S. protective umbrella both because it was not registered in the United States and because it was struck in Kuwaiti territorial waters.

The Sea Isle City, which was attacked early Friday, is one of the 11 U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti tankers, but it had no escort at the time because it, too, was in Kuwaiti waters.

“Today’s attack on the Sea Isle City points out yet another loophole in our Persian Gulf policy, a loophole the Iranians are taking advantage of,” Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Friday. “We have only a narrow policy in the Persian Gulf. For one thing, we protect only 11 tankers. That frees Iran to attack the hundreds of other ships that ply the waters of the gulf.”

Aspin added: “We are seeing Iran nibble at us from around the edges, taking advantage of loopholes that ought to have been foreseen.”

American firms sailing tankers in the gulf under so-called “flags of convenience” have been pressing the Administration hard to expand U.S. military protection for their ships. The ships, though owned by Americans, are typically registered in Panama, Liberia or the Bahamas, so that the owners can avoid U.S. taxes and U.S.-dictated safety regulations and accommodations requirements for their sailors.

The Sungari was one such ship. Owned by an American company, OMI Corp. of New York, it sails under the Liberian flag.

Other U.S.-owned, foreign-flagged ships have come under attack in recent months, but U.S. military commanders are not allowed to go to their aid under the current, restrictive rules of engagement.

Chevron Asks Intervention

“If one of these vessels were being attacked, we would like to see the United States authorized to intervene and stop the attack,” said Thomas S. Wyman, director of governmental and public affairs for Chevron, the San Francisco oil giant.

He called current U.S. policy inconsistent and unfair to U.S. shippers. If the U.S. Navy intends to defend the right of free navigation, he said, it must do so for all shipping, not just 11 Kuwaiti tankers.

“The Administration has repeatedly asserted that this is an area of vital interest to the United States and freedom of navigation must be maintained,” Wyman said. “If we operate under the Liberian or the Bahamian flag, we should have the freedom to move into non-belligerent ports in international waters. It should not be a matter of whether we fly the American flag or not.”

However, a ranking Administration official said that there is little chance that gulf policy would be rewritten to extend military protection to non-U.S.-flag shipping.

“It’s just not going to happen,” the official said, explaining that the Navy would have to expand its force far beyond the 12 ships now in the gulf and the 15 in the nearby Arabian Sea.

Wyman said that Chevron, speaking for a number of U.S. oil shippers, has requested a meeting with Frank C. Carlucci, President Reagan’s national security adviser, to discuss protection for the firms’ supertankers. It has not received a response, Wyman said.

Chevron sends three or four supertankers into the gulf each month, Wyman said, and so far none has been attacked. But he pointed out that numerous U.S. ships flying foreign flags have been attacked and that continuing tension in the gulf threatens U.S. oil supplies. He said that 40% of gulf oil shipped to the United States moves in U.S.-controlled, but not U.S.-registered, tankers.

Since 1981, a total of 400 commercial vessels from 33 countries have come under attack in the Persian Gulf by either Iran or Iraq, according to the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. Including this week’s attacks, three of the ships flew the American flag.