Word: straits
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...signals emanating from Washington last week over the issue of U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf were decidedly mixed. Press reports described a U.S. contingency plan to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Chinese- built Silkworm missiles that Iran is installing along the Strait of Hormuz. Drawing up a wide range of such plans is routine procedure. Testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral William Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said nothing directly about the Silkworms. But speaking of the Reagan Administration's plan to have U.S. warships escort Kuwaiti tankers through the gulf...
Suddenly, in an unambiguous show of support for the rebels, the Indian government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, which up until then had been trying to mediate the civil war, dispatched 19 fishing boats laden with food and medical supplies across the Palk Strait to the battle zone. Condemning the shipment as interference in its internal affairs, Sri Lanka sent naval vessels to interdict the convoy, which was turned back after a tense confrontation in mid-strait...
...decision to intervene so visibly in the civil war apparently slowed the Sri Lankan government's military campaign. Though Tamils make up only 18% of the island's 16 million people, the separatist guerrillas have found support and safe haven among the 50 million Tamils living across the strait in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Last week's airlift seemed to indicate that Gandhi was giving in to pressure from Indian Tamils to intervene more actively in Sri Lanka. Said an official in Colombo: "Whatever India may say about humanitarian aid, what they actually wanted was a halt...
...cover would primarily be supplied by a Navy carrier stationed outside the gulf. The Navy ships will probably escort small convoys of three or four Kuwaiti tankers through the gulf every ten days or so. The danger spot for U.S. vessels will be the 40- to 60-mile- wide Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has deployed Chinese-made Silkworm missiles...
...forces for the gulf without making "serious inroads" in their well- established European defense commitments. Still, British and French warships in the region, though operating independently, maintain close contact with American naval forces stationed there. Says a senior British defense official: "If there were any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and prevent the passage of Western oil tankers through the gulf, I have no doubt that the three navies would act together to keep the route open...