News In Brief
| United Nations, N.Y.
UN implicitly calls Iran to task for Gulf attacks
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Friday condemning attacks on ''commercial ships sailing in and out of ports of neutral countries.'' Iran was thus called to task, though it was not singled out by name. The resolution passed by 13 votes, with 2 abstentions, Monitor contributor Louis Wiznitzer reports.
The resolution also called on all parties to ''refrain from acts which may escalate the war (in the Persian Gulf).'' This call was addressed to Iraq, which also was not named. Iraq has attacked tankers in the northern war zone, as well as close to Iran.
The resolution implicitly condemns Iran in harsher terms than it criticizes Iraq and was, not surprisingly, immediately rejected by Iran.
(On Sunday, jets, reportedly from Iraq, hit the Turkish oil tanker Buyuk Hun south of Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal. Baghdad radio reported that Iraqi planes had hit two ''large naval targets'' southeast of Kharg and had returned to base.)
