Bush Threatens Jordan Port, Will Meet King in U.S. : Gulf crisis: The President pressures Hussein to join the global embargo against Iraq. The monarch may be carrying a new peace proposal.

President Bush indicated Tuesday that he will blockade Jordan’s only port unless Jordan joins the embargo against Iraq.

At the same time, however, Bush said he will meet Jordan’s King Hussein in Maine on Thursday to discuss the crisis, and he held out the possibility of financial aid should Jordan accept the American-led embargo against Iraq.

“Aqaba should be closed,” Bush said, if the Jordanian port becomes “a hole through which commerce flows in an otherwise tight net.”

The statement marked the first direct threat during the current crisis of hostile American action against an Arab country other than Iraq, and it demonstrated the tremendous pressure being exerted on Middle Eastern nations to choose sides in the 12-day-old confrontation.

King Hussein has been desperately seeking to avoid having to pick a side, trying to placate both his traditional Western patrons and his powerful Iraqi neighbor.

The king may be carrying a new peace proposal to Bush, Jordanian officials indicated. On Monday, King Hussein met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein--the two are not related--then called Bush to ask to meet with him.

But the President, at a White House news conference, seemed uninterested in anything short of an unconditional withdrawal by Iraq from Kuwait and the return of the exiled Kuwaiti royal family. Such a humiliating defeat for Iraq almost certainly would topple Saddam Hussein’s government, Middle East experts say. Overthrowing the Iraqi regime is a key, but unstated, aim of U.S. policy during the current crisis, Administration officials have said.

“The fundamental problem” in the crisis is that Iraq “took over Kuwait and that they’ve got to get out of Kuwait and they’ve got to let the rightful rulers return,” Bush said.

For now, the President added, chances of a diplomatic solution to the confrontation seem remote. “I don’t see it right now.”

Once the economic sanctions against Iraq have had a chance to work, the Iraqis may be more accommodating, Bush said. But “the economic sanctions are just beginning to bite,” he added. “It will take a while.”

In his telephone call to Bush on Monday, the Jordanian king said only that he “would like to come over and talk about the whole situation,” the President said. “There was no agenda” nor any indication that he was coming “as a specific emissary of one kind or another.”

Jordan’s port at Aqaba is key to any attempt to shut off Iraqi commerce. Most of Iraq’s crucial grain imports are unloaded from ships at Aqaba, then trucked across the desert to Baghdad. So far, the Jordanians have kept the port open, going so far as to arrest the Norwegian skipper of one merchant ship in Aqaba to force him to unload grain headed for Iraq after the captain tried to leave port to observe the international embargo, Norwegian officials said.

King Hussein left Jordan on Tuesday and is expected to arrive in Washington early today. He then plans to fly to Kennebunkport, Me., on Thursday for the meeting. Bush, meanwhile, left Kennebunkport on Tuesday for White House meetings and will return to his vacation home today after briefings at the Pentagon. Although both the President and the king will be in Washington at the same time today, they will wait until Thursday to meet because Hussein wants time to rest, Bush said.

Having displayed the stick that could be wielded against Jordan, Bush also dangled a carrot, saying, “We’ve always been a friend of Jordan. We’ve helped them in the past. We’d help them in the future if they fulfill their obligations.”

In particular, Bush said, he had spoken with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu about stepping up Japanese aid to Middle Eastern countries that are cooperating in the American-led effort. Japan currently supplies aid to Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, all three key countries in the current confrontation.

“The Japanese are more than ready to entertain proposals along those lines,” Bush said, indicating that Japan may also help defray some of the costs that the United States has incurred in the massive military buildup in Saudi Arabia and neighboring waters.

The operation is “not a freebie,” Bush said, although he said that he still does not have specific cost figures. Nor, he said, could he say how long U.S. troops are likely to stay. “Long enough to get the job done,” Bush said. “I’d like to give you a time frame, but I can’t.”

Bush also shied away from answering questions about American citizens being detained in Iraq and Kuwait, calling their plight “a troubling situation” but adding that “the more we talk about it, and the more we speculate about it, the less helpful it is.”

Broadcasts on the Voice of America beamed to the Middle East urged Americans in Kuwait not to attempt to flee “due to the danger involved.” The Americans, who now number about 2,500, according to U.S. officials, should be prepared to leave as soon as “the orderly evacuation of Americans wishing to leave Kuwait becomes possible,” the radio said.

Although hundreds of foreigners stranded in Kuwait by the Iraqi invasion have been able to slip out of the country, at least one--a British businessman--was shot by Iraqi troops as he tried to cross the Saudi Arabian border.

King Hussein’s visit is only one of a series of continuing diplomatic maneuvers surrounding the Persian Gulf confrontation. On Tuesday, for example, Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly met in Damascus with Syrian officials, including President Hafez Assad.

Syria has agreed to join Egypt in sending troops to Saudi Arabia, a key step in trying to defuse Iraq’s claim to be defending Arab nationalism against Western power. In addition, U.S. officials hope that Syria, which shares a long and tense border with Iraq, can distract Iraqi troops and aid in destabilizing Saddam Hussein’s government.

Also Tuesday, Undersecretary of State Robert M. Kimmitt met with officials from the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China to discuss the possibility of a United Nations military command to coordinate any blockade against Iraq. Such a step would help eliminate criticism that the United States is acting unilaterally.

And other U.S. officials continued discussions with oil-producing nations about increasing output. The talks, Bush said, make him “confident” that other producers will make up for the shortfall caused by taking Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil off the world market.

Meanwhile, U.S. military forces in the Middle East continue to build, and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, speaking to troops in Georgia before they head to Saudi Arabia, warned Iraq against using chemical weapons to attack U.S. soldiers. Although the United States would probably not use chemical weapons in response, Cheney said, the military has a “wide range of measures” available.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon confirmed reports that the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy will head today for the Mediterranean, carrying about 80 warplanes and accompanied by seven other ships. When it arrives in about three weeks, the Navy will have four carriers--nearly a third of its carrier fleet--plus a battleship and dozens of supporting vessels in the waters surrounding the Mideast.

The carrier Eisenhower is in the Red Sea, the Independence is in the Gulf of Oman just outside the Persian Gulf, and the Saratoga is in the Atlantic about ready to enter the Mediterranean, where it will join the battleship Wisconsin, Pentagon officials said.

The Pentagon also announced that advance elements of two California-based units, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton and the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Twentynine Palms, had arrived in Saudi Arabia. Officials declined to say exactly how many troops are now in place to support what the military has dubbed Operation Desert Shield.

So far, although U.S. officials have said that the Navy would block ships trying to carry cargo to or from Iraq, the Administration has avoided declaring an official “blockade,” and Iraq has not tried to test the quarantine. Navy officials believe that they probably have at least another couple of days before a test comes, officials said.

Staff writers Norman Kempster and Melissa Healy contributed to this story.

DAILY COST OF U.S. MILITARY OPERATIONS The estimated cost of deploying U.S. military forces, based on 50,000 troops, is $14.6 million a day. MARINE CORPS: $0.40 million Marine Amphibious Ready Group 7th Marine Amphibious Force NAVY: $5.1 million Joint Task Force, Middle East Independence carrier battle group Eisenhower carrier battle group Saratoga battle force Wisconsin battle force AIR FORCE: $5.1 million 48 F-15C and D planes deployed to Dhahran. 6 to 8 B-52 bombers 5 AWACS planes 20 aerial refueling A/C Airlift operations

ARMY: $4 million 50,000 troops

If troops were to increase to 250,000 in Saudi Arabia the estimated cost would rise to $56.2 million a day.

Source: Center for Defense Information

(Southland Edition) U.S. AIR DEFENSE IN SAUDI ARABIA

Pentagon sources disclosed that these sophisticated air defense missiles were being sent to Saudi Arabia: PATRIOT: High-altitude surface-to-air missiles Dimensions: Length--209 in.

body diameter--16 in.

span--36 in. Launch weight: about 1,500 lbs. Range: about 30 miles

CHAPARRAL: Mobile heat-seeking missiles Dimensions: Length--114.5 in.

body diameter--5 in.

span--25 in. Launch weight: 185 lbs. Range: about 2.5 miles

HAWK: Medium-range guided missiles Dimensions: Length--16 ft. 6 in.

body diameter--14 in.

span--48.85 in. Launch weight: 1,383 lbs. Range: 25 miles

STINGER: Shoulder-fired infantry anti-aircraft missiles Dimensions: Length--60 in

body diameter--2.75 in.

span--5.5 in. Launch weight: 24 lbs. Range: about 3 miles

Note: MIssiles are not to drawn to scale.

Source: Jane’s Weapon Systems