Reagan Warns Tehran Against Attacks

President Reagan warned Iran on Saturday of “very costly” consequences unless it halts military and terrorist attacks in the Persian Gulf and ends its 7 1/2-year war with Iraq.

“We do not seek to confront Iran,” the President said in his weekly radio address. “However, its leaders must understand that continued military and terrorist attacks against non-belligerents and refusal to negotiate an end to the war will be very costly to Iran and its people.”

The tough talk from the White House appeared to raise the ante in the conflict following the dispatch of additional U.S. ships to the gulf and expansion of the escort mission the fleet has been performing there to protect U.S.-flagged and allied shipping since last year.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition that he not be named, denied that Reagan’s words represent a threat but added, “It’s raising by a notch what the Iranians can expect if they continue mining or other belligerent acts--they’d better watch themselves if another U.S. ship is hit.”

Asked if a higher-level response would mean hitting land installations, since the Iranian fleet presents a dwindling number of targets, the official replied, “We are not trying to punish the Iranian people; they’ve been punished enough by their own leaders.”

In his address, Reagan praised U.S. allies--most of whom retain diplomatic and trade ties with Iran--for their cooperation in protecting gulf shipping and said that such cooperative efforts offer the best means of “deterring Iran and enhancing gulf security.”

Although a Pentagon spokesman said last week that 13 ships ordered to the area would be merely relieving some of the 29 vessels currently on duty, other officials said privately that some of the relief armada will overlap the fleet now on duty and provide a greater show of strength.

In a daylong encounter last Monday with U.S. ships and planes, two Iranian frigates and four smaller vessels were sunk or heavily damaged. A U.S. helicopter and its two crew members were lost.

“The actions that our forces took in the gulf were a measured response to Iran’s resumption of mine-laying and continued aggression against non-belligerents,” Reagan said in his radio talk. A U.S. frigate, the Samuel B. Roberts, suffered heavy damage April 14 from a mine believed planted by Iran, triggering the U.S. shelling of two Iranian oil platforms early last Monday, which brought an armed Iranian response.

“We have completed these self-defense actions and consider this incident closed,” Reagan said.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who criticized the Administration’s response to the Roberts incident as an overreaction, questioned whether the President’s remarks were “just rhetoric” or a “notching up” of the conflict. He said that House leaders have not been consulted about a new policy toward Iran but only about the rules for protection of shipping.

Congressional sources said Friday that new rules of engagement will permit Navy ships to intervene if they witness an Iranian attack on a neutral vessel. The Navy had protected U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti tankers since last summer.

Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.), who announced Thursday that he will seek a vote on invoking the War Powers Resolution to require the Administration to clarify its policy in the gulf, said Saturday that the President’s words add urgency to the need for such clarification.

“We’ve crossed the threshold of hostilities, which requires the President to come to Congress and start the debate over just what our goals in the gulf are,” Adams said in a telephone interview. “It’s very hard to have a bipartisan policy when all this started out as a reflagging of Kuwaiti oil tankers and has grown into serious combat. We certainly have not been told what the cost of all this is and what our allies are doing to help.”