China Pledges to Prevent Silkworm Delivery to Iran

U.S. Under Secretary of State Michael H. Armacost said here Tuesday that Chinese officials have pledged to prevent Silkworm missiles from being delivered to Iran.

In meetings with Vice Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and other Chinese officials, Armacost said, “There was a repetition of their intent to undertake strict measures to prevent diversion of Chinese-origin equipment to Iran.”

U.S. officials have charged that China sold Iran the anti-ship, Chinese-made Silkworm missiles that Iran is now using in the gulf area. The United States also accuses China of selling vast quantities of other military equipment to Iran.

Last month, the United States suspended liberalization of high-technology exports to China in retaliation for the alleged Silkworm sales. Armacost said Tuesday that as far as he is aware, no additional retaliatory measures against China are under consideration.

China has repeatedly denied selling the Silkworms to Iran and further denies that it sells any weapons to either Iran or Iraq, which have been at war since 1980. On Monday, Zhao Ziyang, the Chinese premier and general secretary of the Communist Party, called the U.S. charges “completely groundless.”

“It is unfair to shift the responsibility of the intensification of the tensions in the gulf region to China,” Zhao said, speaking with reporters at a reception in the Great Hall of the People.

But at a press conference at the U.S. Embassy here Tuesday, Armacost cited with approval a statement made by Zhao in September in an interview with NBC News.

“We noted recently that Premier Zhao Ziyang said in an interview with Tom Brokaw that--while repeating the well-known position of the government that no sales are directed toward either Iran or Iraq--that in light of the current concerns, strict measures are being taken to prevent diversion of Chinese-origin equipment to Iran,” Armacost said.

“That is a welcome statement,” he added. “I’m not certain what the strict measures are, but I hope they are strict, and I hope they’ll have the effect of avoiding further deliveries of Chinese-origin equipment by whatever means.”

During the interview, Zhao stated that he did not believe that Iran has Chinese-made missiles but that “the international arms market is very complicated” and “if a country has the money and is ready to pay a high price, it will have no trouble in finding ways to acquire weapons.”

Via Third Countries

Because of this, Zhao implied, Chinese-made weapons could be reaching Iran through third countries. “We have taken note of international reaction . . . and are making efforts to prevent weapons China will export from being transferred to Iran or Iraq through other channels,” Zhao said.

Armacost declined to be drawn into a discussion of what evidence the United States has to back up its contention that China is selling weapons directly to Iran. There have been reports that Washington has shown Chinese officials intelligence photos of Silkworms being loaded at a Chinese port and unloaded in Iran.

“I didn’t come here to debate the Chinese government, either in public or in private, on the issue,” he said. “Our concern is less to resolve that debate than to avoid a repetition of the recent incidents in which a weapon of Chinese origin, however it was delivered, landed on an American ship.”

On Oct. 16, a Silkworm fired from the Iranian-occupied Faw Peninsula in Iraq struck the Sea Isle City, a Kuwaiti tanker re-registered to fly the American flag. In retaliation, U.S. Navy forces three days later severely damaged Iranian offshore oil installations the United States said were being used for military purposes. Other Silkworms have been fired at installations belonging to the sheikdom of Kuwait, close to the war zone.

Stressed Political Reaction

In his talks with Chinese officials, Armacost said, he stressed that the political reaction in the United States to Iran’s use of Chinese-made missiles could potentially damage the U.S.-Chinese relationship.

“Our concern obviously is that whenever weapons of Chinese origin, however they are delivered to Iran, hit American-flagged ships and injure Americans and also are directed against friendly countries, it has a political impact in the United States and potentially erodes support for the important relationship we’ve developed here in the field of technology trade,” Armacost said. “I simply underlined the importance of avoiding deliveries of such equipment.”

Armacost said that “the Silkworm has represented a special concern to us for the reason that it has a range and capabilities which permit it to be used in a way which internationalizes the conflict.” This is because it is being used against neutral shipping and “a non-belligerent, Kuwait,” he said.

The under secretary said that Chinese and American officials agreed “that we should continue to search for ways to narrow our differences in order to continue the considerable forward momentum that has developed in our relationship.”

Cooperation in U.N.

Armacost said he also “particularly underlined” the hope that China and the United States could work together in the United Nations “to bring a cease-fire to the Iran-Iraq War.”

The war itself is the fundamental problem, and “a cessation of the fighting would render this kind of issue moot,” he said.

In Iraq, meanwhile, Iran’s main opposition group said Tuesday that the Iranian government signed a contract with the Chinese early last year to buy Silkworms from China and later sent more than 100 men to China for training in the use of the missiles, Reuters news service reported.

“A $400-million contract was signed between the two sides for the missile deal, the first shipment of which arrived at the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in March, 1986,” said a communique from the Baghdad-based Moujahedeen.

Iran had decided to buy the Silkworms at the beginning of that year and sent a team headed by an Iranian official named Riazi to Beijing, the Moujahedeen added.

Iran and Iraq have been at war for seven years, and both protagonists are engaged in what has become known as the Persian Gulf’s “tanker war,” involving sporadic attacks on vessels. The United States and Kuwait have accused Iran of firing Silkworms at Kuwait’s installations and ships, including one Kuwaiti vessel re-registered to fly the American flag.