News In Brief

Security Council resolve calls for Gulf cease-fire

A French-inspired resolution was adopted Monday by the United Nations Security Council calling for the "immediate cessation of all hostilities in the region of the Gulf including sea lanes and harbor works" and which also condemns all acts of war against civilian targets, UN contributor Louis Wiznitzer reports.

Iran is expected to reject this new UN call for a cease-fire in the three-year-old Iran-Iraq war, since it still officially considers the UN, "not to be impartial." But its delegate for the first time took part in behind-the-scenes negotiations at the council and, to quote a Western delegate, "played the UN game."

Meanwhile, Iran has increased military activity in the Strait of Hormuz, Omani military sources said Monday. Iraq reported it destroyed three Iranian naval ships near the Iranian port of Bandar Khomeini at the head of the Gulf.