The Gulf Here a Mine, There a Mine

The waters outside the Persian Gulf resembled a floating parking lot. Scores of empty supertankers, flying the flags of Panama, Japan, Pakistan and many other countries, lay at anchor last week in the Gulf of Oman, as did half a dozen U.S. warships. A menacing cluster of mines had brought the world's busiest oil traffic to a sudden and embarrassing halt. One after another, the explosives bobbed into sight. By week's end at least five had been spotted, and every tiny fishing boat that sailed by was carefully watched in case it tried to plant more of the dangerous devices.

The mines, discovered after one blasted a hole in the U.S.-owned tanker Texaco Caribbean, added a lethal new twist to Washington's showdown with Iran. The explosives were the first to be found in the Gulf of Oman, a vital staging area for ships plying the Persian Gulf. Although the U.S.-escorted Bridgeton struck what appeared to be an Iranian mine last month, that mishap occurred hundreds of miles inside the Persian Gulf. One result of the new danger was a change of heart by Britain and France, which decided to rush minesweepers to the region after all.

After a silence of two days, Washington reluctantly acknowledged that a Navy fighter had fired a pair of Sparrow missiles at an approaching Iranian jet over the Strait of Hormuz. The targeted plane veered away at the last moment and was not harmed, but the episode illustrated the high state of American readiness to respond to any attacks in the area. In the waters below, American warships led three more reflagged tankers to Kuwait, bringing the total to five since the escort operation began last month. Meanwhile, Iraq broke a 25-day pause in its air strikes against Iran, which have taken a heavy toll in the seven-year Iran-Iraq war. The Iraqis staged more than 100 air raids against Iranian oil fields and a major refinery in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

Iran remained relatively calm following a fit of frenzy two weeks ago. After blaming the U.S. for riots that killed nearly 300 Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini launched four days of war games in the strait and loudly promised to settle the score. Late last week an explosion at an Aramco gas plant on the Saudi Arabian coast raised fears that Iran was stepping up its campaign of terrorist subversion against its gulf neighbors. Some 20 workers were killed. Earlier, Iranian officials paid lip service to a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an end to the Iran- Iraq war. Iran's U.N. Ambassador, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, declared that Iran would cooperate with peace efforts, but noted that his country neither accepted nor rejected the U.N. plan.