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Saudi Arabia
Naval Warfare in the Persian Gulf, 1987
The Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 brought enormous cost in lives and
material destruction. For a time, however, the war involved only
the two belligerents and did not present a direct military threat
to Saudi Arabia. The triumph of the radical Shia (see Glossary)
movement in Iran and the Iranian Islamic Revolution under Ayatollah
Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini had raised alarm throughout the
Arabian Peninsula, and the Persian Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia
supported the Iraqi war effort with money and supplies. By 1986
the focus of the war had shifted to the waters of the gulf, where
Iran's naval superiority enabled it to block shipping intended
for Iraq and the export of Iraqi oil. Iran's naval attacks against
tankers and its minelaying reached a peak in 1987. Forty attacks
were mounted against shipping to and from Saudi Arabia, although
oil movements were not seriously affected. The four minesweepers
of the Saudi navy contributed to the international effort to locate
and clear Iranian mines from the gulf. In cooperation with the
United States, the fleet of five Saudi AWACS aircraft carried
out surveillance of air traffic over the gulf. Two Iranian aircraft
were shot down for violating Saudi air space. In October 1987,
a fleet of missile-armed Iranian speedboats was observed moving
toward As Saffaniyah, a major Saudi oil field, which had a processing
complex at Ras al Khafji near the border with Kuwait. When Saudi
ships and aircraft as well as ships of the United States Navy
moved quickly to intercept the force, the Iranian ships turned
away.
Data as of December 1992
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