Scouring the Red Sea Floor

By William E. Smith

Despite an international effort, the mystery of the mines persists

The ships and helicopters of three nations--the U.S., Britain and France--joined the search last week, but the mystery of the Red Sea mines remained unsolved. As the toll of vessels damaged by explosions while sailing either to or from the Suez Canal reached 19, British and French ships and U.S. helicopters were hard at work trying to locate and identify one or more of the mines that were presumed to be causing the trouble. By week's end none had been recovered, though a Cairo newspaper reported that an Egyptian team had detonated a mine in the Red Sea.

Since nobody has yet managed to locate the "smoking gun," as some diplomats put it, there was no certain way to determine just which country or group is responsible for what appeared to be an elaborate act of terrorism and harassment. In the beginning, Egypt, which operates the Suez Canal, had two prime suspects, Iran and Libya. The Iranian government of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini was known to be angry and frustrated over its inability to stop its enemy Iraq from attacking tankers using Iranian oil facilities in the Persian Gulf. The Iranians were also upset about Iraq's intention to export more of its own oil via planned pipelines through Jordan and Saudi Arabia. So it made sense to suppose that Iran might have planted mines in the Red Sea as a way of retaliating against each of those countries as well as against Egypt, which has given heavy support to Iraq in its four-year-old war with Iran. But Khomeini two weeks ago denied that Iran was involved and denounced the mining with such vehemence that, for once, his protestations of innocence seemed genuine.

That left Libya, whose radical leader

Muammar Gaddafi is the sworn enemy of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, as the prime suspect. Central to this view is the fact that a Libyan cargo ship, the Ghat, entered the northern end of the canal on July 6, then traveled southward through the canal and the Gulf of Suez to the Ethiopian port of Assab on the Red Sea, where it unloaded its cargo and eventually headed back toward the canal. According to Egyptian officials, that round trip should have taken the Ghat about eight days. In fact, it took 15 days. Long before the Ghat left the canal on its northward voyage, several ships suffered explosions.

In the beginning, Mubarak implied that either Libya or Iran might be responsible. He later added that he hoped it was not Iran. "I think the Libyans were involved," he told reporters early last week. "But until now we are waiting to find one of the mines to confirm our suspicions." Like his predecessor, the late Anwar Sadat, Mubarak has long been at odds with Gaddafi. Sadat once described the Libyan leader as "a vicious criminal, 100% sick and possessed of the demon." Mubarak's style is to be more restrained in his criticism of fellow Arab rulers, but he has often told visitors privately that he thinks Gaddafi is "crazy." Though reluctant to voice its suspicions, the U.S. apparently agrees. Brookings Institution Middle East Expert William Quandt said that he believes Iran had "its hands full in the gulf" and that the Red Sea's mining is consistent with Libya's "history of disruptive behavior."

But proving Libya's guilt is something else. Mubarak knew that Egypt's twelve aging minesweepers were not capable of clearing the entire Red Sea, or even the Gulf of Suez, or of finding and identifying unexploded mines. So he turned to the U.S. for help. The Reagan Administration has subsequently been accused by the Soviet Union and some radical Middle Eastern states of using the problem as a way to force more U.S. naval power into the region. The Soviet news agency Novosti declared that Washington was "tempted by the idea of turning the Red Sea into an American lake." The Iranian and Libyan news agencies even charged that the U.S. planted the mines in the first place. But the Reagan Administration would have little reason to become involved in an overseas military activity during an election year or to do anything that might remind the U.S. public about its failures in Lebanon.

At the same time, the Administration is eager to support Mubarak in a moment of need and suggested that he call for an international rescue mission. Britain contributed four mine-searching vessels, which have wooden hulls to reduce the risk of setting off magnetic mines. France has sent four minesweepers and two support ships to the region. The U.S. dispatched four Sea Stallion helicopters and a contingent of about 200 men aboard the Shreveport, an amphibious transport vessel that entered the Gulf of Suez at midweek. The Shreveport joined the U.S. oceanographic ship the Harkness, where 15 mine-warfare experts were already at work. Later the U.S. sent three helicopters to Saudi Arabia at the Saudis' request. Italian vessels were due in the area this week.

Off South Yemen, the Soviets were said to have a minesweeper and two other vessels ready to begin a search of their own.

Sooner or later, the searchers expect to capture a mine intact and perhaps extract from it some clues about its origin. Whenever that occurs, it could prove costly to the culprits, whoever they may be. Egypt's Mubarak vowed that as soon as the mystery is solved, the ships of the nation or nations responsible for the mining will be banned from the Suez Canal. --By William E. Smith. Reported by Philip Finnegan/Cairo, with other bureaus

With reporting by Philip Finnegan