VOL. XXXI

NO. 40

11-JULY-1988

The Middle East Situation

The incident in which an Iranian airliner was shot down by missiles from theUS cruiser Venisons has dominated the headlines this week, although it is stillfar from clear exactly what happened. The Iranians, while vowing revenge, havein the first instance opted to exploit the incident for political advantage atthe UN and elsewhere, which would seem for the moment to rule out attacks onAmerican targets outside the region. In the US, however,...