Britons Won’t Help Sweep Gulf for Mines

As shipping officials in Kuwait today began loading the damaged supertanker Bridgeton with oil, Great Britain and the Netherlands said they would not send minesweepers to the Persian Gulf to help locate mines in the vital waterway.

In Tehran today, Iranian President Ali Khamenei warned the United States to pull its forces out of the “dangerous whirlpool” of the Persian Gulf or face attack by Iran.

In London, after a meeting between the U.S. ambassador and the British foreign secretary, the Foreign Office said it has no plans to send minesweepers to the gulf.

“We are keeping the situation and the threat to shipping under constant review but have no plans to send minesweepers to the gulf in the present circumstances,” the Foreign Office said. “We have explained our position to the Americans and will continue to remain in close touch with them.”

On Thursday, Ambassador Charles H. Price II conveyed to Sir Geoffrey Howe a message that diplomatic sources said was a request for British help in clearing the gulf of mines. (Story, Page 4.)

In the Netherlands, a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the Dutch government had refused an informal American request by the U.S. ambassador for naval assistance in the gulf. She said Dutch forces would be sent only as part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation. The Netherlands has 13 minesweepers of the latest design.

A reliable shipping source in Kuwait, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Bridgeton, damaged July 24 when it hit a mine while under escort by U.S. Navy ships, had begun taking on crude oil. He said it wasn’t clear when it would be finished.