Iran Pledges Not to Attack Neutral Ships During Talks

Iran pledged Sunday that it will refrain from attacks on neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf while talks are under way on a cease-fire in its eight-year war with Iraq.

On the war fronts, Iran said it repulsed an overnight Iraqi attack near the border town of Mehran, about 100 miles east of Baghdad.

The Iranian news agency IRNA said that Revolutionary Guards and local tribesmen recaptured about 15 square miles from the Iraqis, although fighting was reported still raging near the Bahrah border post, 2 miles west of Mehran.

IRNA said the attack was the third by Iraq since Saturday morning.

The Iraqis made no mention of fighting on the central front but accused the Iranians of firing long-range artillery into the town of Qalat Dizah in the northeastern Kurdistan region. The Iraqi News Agency said that a woman was killed and eight other civilians were wounded in the artillery barrage.

The Iraqis launched a series of offensives in the southern and central sectors of the front last week in an apparent effort to improve Baghdad’s bargaining position in advance of a truce and to seize as many Iranian prisoners as possible.

The fighting in the region comes nearly two weeks after Iran accepted the U.N. Security Council’s year-old Resolution 598, which demands a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq War. Tehran acted to try to halt the fighting after its forces had suffered a series of battlefield reverses.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said in New York on Saturday that despite procedural difficulties, he expects to be able to set a date for the start of a truce later this week.

Although Iraq accepted the U.N. cease-fire resolution when it was originally adopted in July, 1987, the Baghdad government has since demanded that, before any cease-fire takes place, the two countries hold direct talks to discuss implementation of the truce and an overall settlement of the conflict.

Iran has said it will not hold direct negotiations with Iraq until a cease-fire has been implemented.

No Attacks on Shipping

But Iran said Sunday that it will refrain from attacking shipping in the gulf as long as the preparations for the truce are going ahead.

Speaking to news agency correspondents in Abu Dhabi, Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Mohammed Besharati said Iran will do all it can to keep the peace process moving forward.

“We will try to do our best not to violate anything so that U.N. Resolution 598 will come into reality,” Besharati said of the Security Council peace plan. “Until that time, we will not do anything to shipping.”

Since the Iranian acceptance of the cease-fire on July 18, there has been only one instance of an Iranian attack against civilian shipping, involving a Kuwaiti fishing boat in which two Egyptian crew members were killed.

More Than 500 Ships Hit

Since 1983, more than 500 civilian ships have been hit in the Persian Gulf as Iraq attacked Iranian oil exports and Iran retaliated by hitting ships sailing to or from gulf Arab states that have helped Iraq in the war.

Last year, the Iranian attacks prompted Kuwait to re-register 11 tankers in the United States, entitling them to fly the American flag and, more important, to qualify for U.S. naval escorts on the perilous journey through the Persian Gulf. The United States, which had maintained a token naval force in the gulf since World War II, vastly expanded its naval presence to provide the increased security.

Besharati, who was touring gulf states in an effort to reassure them of Iran’s sincerity in accepting a cease-fire, said he expects Kuwait to lower the American flag on its shipping when a truce finally takes effect.

He also said that the United States should reduce its presence in the gulf when the attacks on shipping come to a halt.