News In Brief

Iran-Iraq counterthreats: Kharg Island vs. Hormuz

An Iraqi official Tuesday said his country sees an attack on Iran's oil export terminal at Kharg Island as the only way to end the stalemate in the three-year-old Persian Gulf war. Diplomats in Baghdad said general opinion in the Iraqi capital held an attack on Kharg Island as imminent.

Iran has threatened to close down the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf if Iraq disrupted its oil exports. The Iranian threat to close the strait, through which a sixth of the noncommunist world's oil supplies pass, has heightened fears of foreign intervention to keep the oil flowing.