Conference turris::scandia

179.0. "Official regrets Danish ships carrying arms" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Mon Jan 05 1987 09:24

Associated Press Sun 04-JAN-1987 20:56                          Saudi-Denmark

             Official Says Danish Ships Ferry Arms to Iran, Iraq
    
    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Denmark's foreign minister acknowledged
    Sunday that Danish ships were carrying weapons to warring neighbors
    Iran and Iraq, but said his government could not prevent it. The
    minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, said Denmark was neutral in the
    6-year-old Persian Gulf war, but could not take legal action against
    the owners of the vessels. 
    
    Ellemann-Jensen, on the first leg of a three-nation tour, said Danish
    law prohibits exports of weapons from Denmark to any country involved
    in war. "But it is not possible for us to prohibit a ship owned by a
    Dane from carrying arms from one country to another," he said at a
    press conference. "Even though we cannot stop these ships from carrying
    arms, we condemn such transports," he said. "I feel very sad indeed
    that Danish ships seem to have been involved in that transport." 
    
    The Danish official met for an hour Sunday with King Fahd, and later
    quoted the Saudi monarch as saying Iran was "finally beginning to see
    the economic and human advantages of ending the war." Ellemann-Jensen
    leaves Monday for the Red Sea port of Jidda before flying on to North
    Yemen. He travels to Oman on Wednesday.