CHINA SAID TO OFFER MORE MISSILES TO IRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401650019-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: February 14, 1989
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401650019-3
STAT
STAT
China Said toOff~iMOE~
Missiles to Iran
`Sheer Rumor,' Beijing Says of Reports of
New Silkworm Deal
By JIM MANN, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-U.S. officials
say there are indications that China
has offered to sell new Silkworm
anti-ship missiles to Iran, despite
China's repeated assurances to the
United States that it would stop
doing so.
The Silkworms are viewed as a
potential threat to shipping in th -Wd be
Bush, Gorbachev to Visit
If China were to go forward with
any new sale, it could pose a new
complication for Sino-American
relations at a particularly delicate
time. President Bush is planning to
visit China later this month, and
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorba-
chev is scheduled to make his own
ground-breaking trip to Beijing in
May.
One U.S. official who keeps track
of Chinese arms sales said that
China and Iran seem to have
reached a new arms agreement last
August or September.
"They've got a deal going.
They've got people going back and
forth (between the two countries,"
he said. "It's Silkworm [missiles]
and all kinds of other gear."
Several high-ranking U.S. offi-
cials denied that any new Silkworm
missiles from China have reached
Iran yet. These officials also insist-
ed that they were not aware of any
new deal involving Silkworms be-
tween the two countries. However,
two other U.S. government sources
confirmed that the United States
has received reports indicating that
Chinese and Iranian officials have
discussed new sales of Silkworms.
Asked about these re orts in a
recent interview with reoutem
rim The Times. CIA Director
William H. Webster lied: "I
don't want to talk a t I t1 or'
obvious reasons. We've not a triD
coming up [by Bush to mall. and
aTw other !Nm that don't think
Thina in ng a major ac-
a es poran y c ampe
em
ow r in munitions trade around the
on high-technology sales to China world," Webster went on. "But
to protest Beijing's sale of these they have been responsive to a
missiles to Iran. The freeze was number of initiatives by American
lifted after China promised to pre- leaders. and there are discussions
vent further Silkworms from about Ito whom] and what they're
reaching Iran. going to sell.
A spokesman for the Chinese U.S. officials first began voicing
talk Embassy
a new missile le deal is said that public concern about China's sale of
rumor, , a which is utterly ly ground- "sheer Silkworm missiles to Iran in June,
less." 1987, soon after the Reagan Ad-
Persian Gulf. In 198?, the Unit
St t t
l I d
d
ministration decided to put Ku-
wait's oil fleet under the American
flag. Later that year, a Silkworm
missile fired from Iranian territory
hit the Sea Isle City, a U.S. -flagged
oil tanker, at anchor in Kuwaiti
waters.
At first, China denied providing
any Silkworms to Iran. Later, after
the Reagan Administration re-
stricted high-tech exports to China,
the Foreign Ministry said that
China had taken steps to prevent
Silkworms from reaching Iran
through the international arms
market. China reportedly had pro-
vided the missiles to Iran through
intermediaries such as North Ko-
rea.
During separate trips to China
last year, then-Secretary of State
George P. Shultz and then-Defense
Secretary Frank C. Carlucci raised
with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
the subject of Chinese arms sales in
the Middle East. Without saying
exactly what commitments he had
obtained from Deng, Carlucci said
afterward that he was hopeful "we
can put this issue behind us."
The cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq
War last summer dramatically re-
duced the danger of hostilities that
could affect commercial shipping in
the Persian Gulf. As a result, U.S.
Washington ashington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
officials are no longer as worried
about the impact of Silkworms in
Iran. "There's nothing wrong with
Silkworms," one U.S. official said
recently.
However, despite the apparent
end of the war, the United States
remains officially committed to Op -
eration Staunch, the policy
launched by the Reagan Adminis-
tration to curb the flow, of arms to
Iran.
As a result, officials say, the
United States might be obliged to
take some sort of action against
China, such as another clampdown
on high-technology exports, if it
was clear that China was delivering
new Silkworms to Iran.
J.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401650019-3