U.S. SAID TO ACT TO PREVENT ATTACK BY IRAQ FROM OMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640101-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: October 4, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640101-8
ARTICLE APPEA NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 4 OCTOBER 1980
U.S. Act to Prevent
li asked Iraq to remove the planes that had
Said to

,; landedon its territory so that lt vrould be
..
withth
w, - ? e Awacs decision. President Car-
, , easier for the United States to go ahead
--Attac. k by iraq From man the four planes on Sunday, reporters were
.... ter provisionally approved sending one of
,
- ?
Monday after Saudi Arabia agreed to
issue a statement that it had asked for the
By BERNARD GWERTZ1VIAT4 planes and after members of Congress'
?.- -' ? .. , . nodal to Tim New Yor's Times ? . ,
-WASHINGTON, Oct. 3?.. Alarmed by ? ? ?'
ifitelligence reports that Iraq was plan- At a news conference in New York yes-
'
terday Secretary of State Edmund S.
nirig to launch air and helicopter strikes
gainst Iran from nearby Oman last weekend,
said: "There is absolutely no sub-
aweekend, the United States and Britainthat stance to any accusation at we were in-
exerted copsiderable diplomatic pres- volved in withll Iraq in connec-
sure to prevent the widening of the con- tion with this current fighting. There
Mit, diplomatic sources said today. .1 -'= - - never has been any basis for it; and as a
" They said information was received on matter of fact, there is a lot of basis for 1
-
c
ould be briefed. 7, ?
By coincidence, Lord Carrington, the
British Foreign Secretary, was in Wash-
ington over the weekend after attending
the United Nations General Assembly
session in New York. According to diplo-
matic officials, he was struck by the high
degree of tension in the Administration.
Today President Carter told General
Zia that the United States would stand by
its 1959 commitment to help Pakistan if it
was attacked by the Soviet Union, whose
troops are in neighboring Afghanistan.
General Zia did not ask for military aid
but stressed the need for more economic
assistance for refugees. ; ?
.Saturday from Oman that Iraq had sent the opposite conclusion."
, . . 4.,.
troop-carrying helicopters and planes to .-The- Oman crisis, as it is being de-
that small Persian Gulf nation and was scribed here, occurred as the Carter Ad-
considering asking the Omanis for per- ministration was occupied with an urgent
mission to attack three Iranian-held is- request from Saudi Arabia for air-de-
lands in the Gulf and Iranian installations
tense assistance.
Early in the Iran-Iraq conflict., Saudi
near the Strait of Hormuz. :" `.-,r;,, ', -
Arabia and some other Arab states
agreed to permit some Iraqi planes to
land on their territory. The Saudis feared
that Iran might retaliate by attacking its
eastern oilfields. -_-,
Neutrality Was Prime Concern -
The overriding American concern in
deciding whether to provide.the four elec-
Such attacks might have resulted in
Iranian retaliation against Oman and
such oil-producing Gulf states as Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait and in the closing of
the strait to oil shipping. But the attacks
did not take place. ?
This was disclosed to reporters here
and in London as President Mohammad
Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan arrived in Wash- tronic-surveillance planes, known as
ington for a meeting with President Car- Awacs, for Airborne Warning and Control
ter this morning 'to discuss Pakistan's Systems, was that the move not be seen
economic problems and General Zia's as undermining American neutrality in
frustrated efforts on behalf of the Islamic the conflict.
C.onference to end the Iran-Iraq war. ? . . re
It is presumed he that Saudi Arabia
An Answer to Iranian Charge
Politically, it i being Suggested that
the strong stand taken by the Carter Ad-
ministration against the use of Oman's
territory may have averted a dangerous
spread of the fighting:- But it is also ac-
knowledged ? that there is no certainty
about what might have happened.
High-ranking officials here hint at an-
other aspect of the situation: Iran, from
the start .of. the war with Iraq, has ac-
cused the United Statesof collusion with
the Iraqis. In effect, the Americans are
saying in response, that not only are such
charges false but that intact the United
States is working to protect Iran's integ-
rity...',41;,..14-- ?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640101-8