News In Brief

Senate unit says Iran-Iraq war not apt to draw in US, USSR

A Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report said yesterday that the Iran-Iraq war is unlikely to result in superpower hostilities, because both the United States and the Soviet Union share the same short-term goal - an end to the conflict.

When the investigators visited eight countries in the area in July, they found ''the tanker war is having remarkably little effect on Persian Gulf exports (of oil) through the Strait of Hormuz.''

The report says the military balance in the war has shifted toward Iraq in the last year because of massive Franch and Soviet arms sales to the Iraqis and a world wide arms embargo on Iran