Pushing the Saudis Too Far

By William E. Smith

Iran loses a plane, and the war takes an ominous turn

When the two Iranian F-4 fighter planes flew over Saudi Arabian territorial waters last week, they seemed to set the stage for yet another attack on a tanker doing business with Iran's sworn enemy, Iraq. But this time the story was different: the planes were intercepted by two Saudi F-15 fighters firing air-to-air missiles. One, and possibly both, of the Iranian planes was shot down. A short time later, Iran sent eleven more F-4s into the skies over the Persian Gulf. Again, the Saudis intercepted them. After a brief standoff, the Iranian planes withdrew.

The engagement signaled an important change in the 45-month-old war between Iran and Iraq. Until now, the Saudis have made every effort to stay out of the war, even though they have given Iraq billions of dollars for weaponry. They have refused to fire back at Iranian planes that for the past month have flown into Saudi airspace in response to Iraq's efforts to choke off Iranian oil exports by firing at tankers using Iran's oil ports. As a result, Iran has been able to count on a big advantage: the determination of Saudi Arabia and the smaller gulf states to stay out of the conflict. Now, it appears, the Saudi policy of nonconfrontation with Iran no longer prevails.

Even so, the Saudis made it clear that they had fired their missiles more in sorrow than in anger. Said Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S.: "Our sovereignty was violated and we reacted, as we said we would all along, in a defensive manner. We think it is a pity we had to be dragged into this conflict."

The Saudi-Iranian encounter came during a relative lull in the fighting. At least two more ships were hit during the week. Iraqi Super Etendards swooped down on the Turkish tanker Buyuk Hun in the vicinity of the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island (see box). The ship was set ablaze and had to be abandoned, but its crew was rescued. At week's end Iraq" also claimed its warplanes had hit two "naval targets," otherwise unidentified, near Kharg Island, but the attacks could not be confirmed.

Unable to ship their own oil through the besieged gulf, the Iraqis are desperate to find an alternative route that will allow them to replenish their war-drained treasury. It was learned last week that a suggestion had come from an unexpected source: the Israelis. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, Prime Yitzhak Shamir revealed that offered to let Iraq pump its oil through long-unused pipeline, built in the 1930s, stretches from Baghdad to the Israeli port of Haifa. Iraq, which does not recognize Israel, rejected the invitation.

Because of the growing risk to shipping, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that it had begun to provide protection for tankers chartered to supply fuel for the American naval ships patrolling the gulf. The Reagan Administration is prepared to extend air and naval cover to other vessels if the tanker war should worsen. Under the plan, the U.S. would establish a sort of naval cordon sanitaire along the western channel of the gulf, through which ships from nonbelligerent nations destined for neutral ports would be escorted. No ships carrying arms or supplies for the warring countries would be included.

In the meantime, both Iran and Iraq bombed civilian targets on the ground. Iraq mounted a raid on the northern Iranian border town of Baneh, killing several hundred people who had gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the 1963 riots against the Shah. In response, Iran sent shells crashing into Iraq's beleaguered port of Basra; Iraq retaliated by hitting the Iranian oil city of with a single missile, killing twelve people. Some observers thought the activity was a prelude to another, long-awaited &quoet;human wave" offensive by Iran, a view reinforced by a decloration of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini that last Tuesday would be remembered as "an epic day." But the day passed without any sign of the Iranian offensive.

According to some reports from Tehran, the ayatullahs favor an offensive along the entire 700-mile border. The Iranian military thinks that such a drive would be suicidal, but it may take place anyway. As of late last week, U.S. satellite information suggested that Iran still needed a few days in which to complete its preparations for such an onslaught.

If it comes, it will be met by some highly sophisticated Iraqi weaponry. According to accounts from Baghdad, the Soviet Union has supplied Iraq with air-to-surface missiles capable of hitting Kharg Island and other targets deep within Iran. The Iraqis reportedly also have received the Soviet SS-12 missile, which has a range of 500 miles, as well as 5,000 cluster bombs from Chile.

It was in this highly charged atmosphere last week that Saudi Arabia finally, and reluctantly, fought back. Despite their arsenal of 130 sophisticated aircraft, including 60 American-made F-15s, the Saudis had been thought to be fearful of provoking Iran into a wider war and uneasy about the ability of their own inexperienced pilots.

According to U.S. officials, the two Iranian F-4 Phantom jets, which were supplied to Iran by the U.S. in the days of the Shah, took off from their base at Bushire shortly before noon last Tuesday. On the prowl for likely naval targets, they flew down the gulf near the Saudi island of Al Arabiyah, where they ran straight into a patrol of Saudi F-15 planes. Highflying U.S. AWACS planes had tracked the Iranian jets across the gulf, then Saudi coastal radar picked them up when they came within range. With the Saudi technician aboard the AWACS plane relaying information and guiding his own fighters, the two Saudi F-15s intercepted the less-advanced F-4s, and the fight took place.

The U.S. was relieved that the Saudis had met the challenge. The Reagan Administration had evoked considerable congressional resentment two weeks ago by using its emergency powers to rush 400 Stinger missiles to Saudi Arabia. But it was not prepared to do the same for Kuwait, a gulf state with which the U.S. has had frequent disagreements. Though Kuwait's refineries and desalinization plants are painfully exposed, the White House turned down Kuwait's request to buy 500 Stingers.

If the week's most significant event had been the strengthening of Saudi resolve, the inevitable corollary was that this would encourage the Iranians to strike harder elsewhere. The ayatullahs are simply not ready to give up until they have destroyed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Says a senior army officer in Tehran: "Military capabilities and options are being examined and re-examined every day. But from the clergy there is not even a hint of the possibility of peace."

--By William E. Smith.

Reported by Barry Hillenbrand / Jidda and Johanna McGeary / Washington

With reporting by Barry Hillenbrand, Johanna McGeary