Iran renews threat to close Gulf

Iran Sunday renewed its threat to stop all oil exports from the Persian Gulf if its own shipments were interrupted by Iraqi attacks. Iraq is reported to be only days away from receiving five super-Etendard planes from France which could be used against tankers moving Iranian oil and Iranian oil installations.

Diplomatic sources in Baghdad say Iraq, increasingly anxious to end the three-year-old war which is severely straining its economy, could use the French jets to attack Iran's offshore oil fields and the Kharg Island export terminal at the head of the Gulf.

French television, however, said Sunday that delivery of the aircraft had been delayed. The French Defense Ministry refused to comment on the report.