Word: tankers
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Reagan's reply to all these concerns was to strike an attitude of poised calm, even when taking firm action. The President last week invoked his emergency powers to sell Saudi Arabia 400 shoulder-fired Stinger antiaircraft missiles and to provide a fourth aerial tanker, a KC-10, that can refuel Saudi fighters in flight. The moves were intended to help the Saudis protect shipping from Iranian air assault in the Persian Gulf. Kuwait promptly made an unofficial request for Stingers; the U.S. suggested it turn to European suppliers...
...tanker war hits a lull, but Iraq fears a new land offensive...
...meantime, Saudi Arabia is trying to exert some influence over Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who began the tanker attacks earlier this year as a way of forcing Khomeini to enter into peace negotiations. But Saddam Hussein will not lift his siege of Iran as long as Khomeini seems set on toppling Iraq's government...
Both Saddam Hussein and the equally desperate Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran were clearly prepared to involve not only their neighbors but the world in order to achieve their goals. Saddam Hussein, having started a war he cannot win, is resorting to tanker attacks in an effort to bring international pressure on Iran to accept a peace settlement. Khomeini wants to destroy Saddam Hussein and create in Iraq an Islamic republic modeled on Iran...
...keeping domestic discontent under control. The danger is that if his oil exports are cut off by Iraq, he will strike at the Saudi oilfields or launch still another ground offensive against Iraq. At the same time, the Iraqi government seems genuinely pleased with the results of the tanker war thus far, claiming that it has destroyed 27 vessels since Feb. 27. As the news of new attacks reached Baghdad last week, a high Iraqi official declared, "Let the Iranians lose their tempers and attack other shipping in the gulf. This will only push the Iranians into a dead...