Word: kuwaiti
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Despite concern in Congress over the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf, Americans appear to be strongly in favor of that policy. In a poll taken for TIME last week by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman,* supporters of the use of U.S. military escorts for reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers outnumbered opponents by almost 2 to 1. Some of those sentiments, however, are based on erroneous information: 85% said the escorts were important to "protect oil shipments going to the U.S." In fact, most of the petroleum products carried in the U.S.-escorted vessels are bound for Western Europe and Japan...
Angered by Washington's decision to reflag and escort Kuwaiti tankers through the gulf, Iran announced with great fanfare that it would stage four days of war games in the Strait of Hormuz, the entryway to the gulf. In case there was any doubt about the intent of the maneuvers, they were code-named "Martyrdom." One of the reflagged ships, the fully loaded Gas Prince, slipped quietly out of harm's way and toward its destination in Japan before the exercises began. But the supertanker Bridgeton, damaged last month by a mine that may have been planted by the Iranians...
...last month. The French aircraft carrier Clemenceau last week steamed to the gulf as Iranian police continued to hold 15 French citizens hostage in the French embassy in Tehran. Tensions remained high between Iran and Britain over earlier incidents involving their diplomats. After the Mecca tragedy, gangs ransacked the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian embassies in the Iranian capital and took four Saudis prisoner...
...Soviet Union, meanwhile, gladly seized the opportunity to play a larger role in the gulf. Indeed, it was a Soviet decision last spring to charter three oil tankers to Kuwait that drove the Reagan Administration to counter the move by reflagging Kuwaiti vessels. But in reporting last week's negotiations with Iran, the Soviet news agency TASS noted that both Moscow and Tehran expressed mutual concern over the "unprecedented buildup of the U.S. military presence in the region." Nonetheless, the potential partnership poses problems for both countries. The Soviet Union remains a major arms supplier to Iraq. And Moscow cannot...
...other nations must again find a way to deal with that figure. For all the problems that Reagan's Kuwaiti escort service has encountered, the President seems determined to continue with the operation indefinitely. Says a senior Administration official: "He's committed to demonstrating support to our friends in the region." Still, the White House began muting its military role in the gulf last week. Senior officials insisted that the reflagging was first and foremost a display of solidarity toward the moderate Arabs, not a show of muscle...