PERSIAN GULF: Choosing Up Sides

While Moscow and Washington stay neutral, Iraq and Iran gain allies

Overshadowing the war between Iraq and Iran since it began three weeks ago has been one great fear: that other nations would be inexorably drawn into this bloody conflict between two angry neighbors. That nightmare is slipping toward reality. Iran and Iraq last week continued to savage each other with bombing, missile and artillery strikes, and there were brutal battles for control of the Iranian port of Khorramshahr on the Shatt al Arab waterway (see map). Meanwhile, other states of the Middle East...

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