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From: hijab@cad.UUCP (Raif Hijab)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Kaddafi
Message-ID: <278@cad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-May-86 00:33:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: cad.278
Posted: Tue May  6 00:33:44 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 20:53:18 EDT
References: <2545@decwrl.DEC.COM> <1953@sequent.UUCP>
Organization: U. C. Berkeley CAD Group
Lines: 30
Summary: The Twelve Mile Limit

In article <1953@sequent.UUCP>, brian@sequent.UUCP (Brian Godfrey) writes:
> >	Now, I am not going to say that the Reagan Administration does
> >not have problems. I am not entirely sure why we went into the Gulf
> >in the first place. Defending a twelve mile limit has no strategic
> >advantage to the US.
>
>  Not true. Without the twelve mile limit many important waters become 
> closed. Waters such as the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the English
> Channel would cease to be freely navigable if surrounding countries
> decided to claim a wider coastal authority.

Wrong Mr. Godfrey. The straits of Hormuz (entrance to the Persian
Gulf) and Bab el-Mandeb (entrance to the Red Sea) have widths of
less than 24 nautical miles (including mid-channel islands) and 
are therefore entirely owned by the adjacent states: Iran and Oman
control Hormuz; Yemen and Djibouti control Bab el-Mandeb. They
allow commercial shipping, but could technically block them in case
of war. The Suez Canal, which constitutes the other entrance to 
the Red Sea, is man-made and entirely owned by Egypt. Another example,
the strait of Gibraltar, is barely twelve miles wide at its narrowest,
and lies entirely in the jurisdiction of Morocco and Spain. Also,
the strait of Dover in the English Channel is less than 24 miles
at its narrowest, making it completely in the jurisdiction of France
and the United Kingdom.

Other examples: Most of the Gulf of Aqaba is in Egyptian and Saudi
Arabian territorial waters. Greece claims the entire Agean Sea.
Turkey owns the sea of Marmara, which seperates the Agean from the
Black sea. Denmark and Sweden can block off the Baltic. I am sure
others on the net can provide additional examples.