U.S. PREPARED TO ESCORT KUWAITI TANKERS

  The United States has offered Navy
  warships to escort Kuwaiti oil tankers into and out of the 
  Gulf where they could be threatened by new Iranian anti-ship
  missiles, U.S. defense officials said today.
      "We believe the Kuwaitis have also approached the Soviet
  Union about the possibility of using Soviet tankers" to ship
  their oil, one of the officials told Reuters. "But if there is
  superpower protection, we would rather it come from us," the
  official said.
      The officials, who asked not to be identified, said Kuwait
  had asked about possible protection for a dozen vessels, most
  of them oil tankers, which could be supplied by three U.S. Navy
  guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates now
  in the southern part of the Gulf.
      "We told them we would give them help and we are waiting to
  hear the Kuwaiti response to our offer," one official said.
      In addition to a half dozen ships in the U.S. Navy's small
  Mideast Task Force near the Straits of Hormuz, the Pentagon has
  moved 18 warships -- including the Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk
  -- into the northern Indian Ocean in the past month.
      White House and defense officials said today that massing
  of the fleet was routine and had nothing to do with the
  Iran-Iraq war or Iran's recent stationing of Chinese-made 
  anti-ship missiles near the mouth of the Gulf.
      The land-based missiles have increased concern in Kuwait
  and other Middle East countries that their oil shipments might
  be affected. Several hundred vessels have been confirmed hit in
  the  Gulf by Iran and Iraq since early 1984. White House
  spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters today that it was in
  the U.S. strategic interest to keep the free flow of oil in the
  gulf and through the Straits of Hormuz.
      But he said U.S. ships in the region were on routine
  maneuvers.
      Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on Sunday declined to
  discuss specifics, but said the United States would do whatever
  was necessary to keep the Gulf shipping open in the face of new
  Iranian anti-ship missiles in the region.
      "We are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the
  shipping going and keep the freedom of navigation available in
  that very vital waterway of the world," he said on NBC
  television's "Meet the Press."
      The State Department said Friday Iran has been informed
  about U.S. concern over the threat to oil shipments in the
  Gulf. The communciation was sent through Switzerland, which
  represents American interests in Iran.
       Iran on Sunday denied as baseless reports that it intended
  to threaten shipping in the gulf and warned the United States
  that any interference in the region would meet a strong
  response from Tehran, Tehran Radio said.
      An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted in a
  broadcast monitored by the BBC in London, said reports that
  Iran intends to threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless.
      "In conjunction with this misleading propaganda, America has
  already paved the ground to achieve its expansionist and
  hegemonistic intentions, aiming to build up its military
  presence in the region," he was quoted as saying.
  

