U.S. Eases Red Sea Blockade -- As Gesture To Jordan, U.S. Suspends Vessel Inspections At Port Of Aqaba

WASHINGTON - In a political gesture to Jordan, the Clinton administration took the first steps yesterday toward ending the allied naval blockade of the Red Sea that has been used to enforce the U.N. embargo against Iraq.

In a terse announcement, the Pentagon said the U.S. Navy would temporarily suspend its inspection of merchant vessels outside the Jordanian port of Aqaba and would allow agents of Lloyd's Register, a London-based company, to verify the contents of the vessels ashore instead.

The move, which had been requested formally by Jordan's King Hussein, follows Jordan's new peace accord with Israel last month and rapidly improving diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries.

Officials said if the on-shore inspection arrangement proves satisfactory during a monthlong test period, the United States and its U.N. allies would permanently end their naval blockade in the Red Sea area and turn the operation over to Lloyd's.

Even so, U.S. and allied warships will continue to enforce their 4-year-old naval blockade against Iraq in the Persian Gulf, which, like the Red Sea, serves as a major sea lane for cargo ships carrying goods bound for Iraq.

The embargo, imposed just before the Persian Gulf war, was designed initially to persuade Iraq to leave Kuwait after it invaded that country in August 1990. It was continued after the Persian Gulf war to ensure that Iraq did not rebuild its weapons arsenal.

The allies began intercepting ships outside Aqaba's harbor after U.S. intelligence agencies suggested that Jordan may have been helping Iraq get around the allied embargo. King Hussein was critical of the allied offensive against Iraq, calling it a war against all Arabs.

Ending the interdiction of ships bound to and from the port of Aqaba has long been a goal of Jordan, which has regarded the operation as an encroachment on its sovereignty and a slap in the face politically.

But the United States' relations with Jordan have warmed considerably since King Hussein made peace with Israel last month, and President Clinton is now asking Congress to write off the country's almost $700 million in unpaid debts and to sell Jordan more military spare parts.

The Defense Department said the United States and the 13 other allied countries participating in the naval embargo have intercepted 21,392 vessels in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and have boarded 9,710 of them since the blockade was imposed Aug. 18, 1990.

Of these, some 500 vessels have been diverted since the operation began, mostly because their manifest papers were not in order or because their cargo holds were inaccessible, according to the Pentagon. Most were cleared later after closer inspection by the allies.

Pentagon officials said U.S. naval vessels would continue to conduct routine patrols in the Red Sea area, as they have for years, even if the job of enforcing the embargo against Iraq is moved ashore. The area serves as a strategic naval hub for the entire region.

Israel and Jordan currently are negotiating a series of bilateral agreements on issues ranging from providing for joint management of the Dead Sea to setting up additional border-crossings for tourists. One recently was opened at Aqaba.