U.S.-Iraq Showdown Over Embassy Looms : Diplomacy: Hussein threatens to revoke envoys' immunity in Kuwait if his order is defied.

By DOUGLAS JEHL

Aug. 23, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON —

The United States said Wednesday it will defy an Iraqi order to close its embassy in Kuwait, setting the stage for a potential showdown with Saddam Hussein over his vow to revoke the diplomatic immunity of foreign diplomats in the occupied nation at noon Friday.

“We must not take the position that this illegal regime can shut down legitimate embassies as a result of their aggression,” President Bush said during a news conference at his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me.

The action, which could leave American embassy officials subject to detention, represents a last-ditch effort by the Bush Administration to maintain contact with the estimated 2,500 U.S. citizens trapped in Iraqi-held Kuwait.

Bush refused to discuss how the United States intends to enforce its decision or how Hussein, the Iraqi president, might respond. But other Administration officials conceded that the clash over embassies could move the Middle East crisis closer to conflict.

“We’ll see what happens when push comes to shove,” said a State Department official involved in managing the crisis.

In rejecting the Iraq demand, a State Department spokesman said a contingent headed by U.S. Ambassador Nathaniel Howell III will remain in Kuwait to disavow the Iraqi annexation and to honor U.S. “obligations to the American private community.”

Non-essential personnel and their dependents, who account for most of the 120 members of the American diplomatic community now in Kuwait, are to evacuate the occupied country through Baghdad under an arrangement guaranteed by the Iraqi government.

More than a dozen other countries, including Britain and France, also have pledged to keep their embassies open in Kuwait despite the Iraqi assertion that the nation no longer exists. Most indicated that they would leave behind core groups headed by their ambassadors.

Analysts warned that the defiant action, by forcing Hussein either to respond or back down, has the potential to become the sort of flashpoint that so far has been avoided in the three-week-old crisis.

“It’s like two kids saying to one another, ‘Knock that chip off my shoulder,’ ” said Robert Kupperman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Once the chip falls, it becomes difficult to save face.”

Any Iraqi move to detain American diplomats would be regarded by the United States as “the greatest offense,” said Judith Kipper, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

“I don’t know if it’s an act of war,” Kipper said, “but it’s outside all norms of international behavior.”

Hussein delivered his ultimatum Monday, warning diplomats to close their embassies in Kuwait by noon Friday and to transfer their missions to Baghdad. An Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman warned that diplomats would otherwise be treated “as ordinary foreign nationals.”

The United States was joined in its rejection of the deadline by nine Western European nations, which announced their decision from a meeting in Paris. Britain and the Soviet Union already had decided to maintain scaled-down embassy operations. Some other countries, however, including Malaysia and the Philippines, have indicated they will withdraw.

The denial of diplomatic immunity would for the first time leave ambassadors and other diplomats subject to arrest by Iraqi forces. Unconfirmed reports out of Kuwait have said that Iraqi forces warned European diplomats they would be treated as prisoners of war under the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

An Administration official, however, said the U.S. personnel in Kuwait had been advised that they would be regarded as “ordinary Americans,” possibly subject to the same detention that has brought about 52 Americans into Iraqi custody.

The State Department has confirmed that Hussein’s government has moved some of the captive Westerners to military installations and industrial sites in Iraq, apparently to be used as “human shields” against a possible U.S. military attack.

The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, well-fortified after a 1983 bombing attack, is usually guarded by Kuwaiti security personnel. Since the Aug. 2 invasion, it has relied entirely on an eight-man internal security force of U.S. Marines, sources said.

Although Iraqi forces have not attempted to breach the compound since taking over Kuwait, they would probably be able to overpower the Marine defenders, the sources said.

In explaining the decision to keep the embassy open, President Bush and other officials referred repeatedly to a U.N. Security Council resolution pledging to uphold the legitimacy of a sovereign Kuwait.

But Bush also said the embassy would “clearly” provide support and help to any Americans who requested it. And Administration officials made clear that the overriding motivation for the decision to defy Hussein was the need to preserve, for as long as possible, the embassy-operated network that has helped to protect Americans from an Iraqi roundup.

The makeshift system, the only remaining means of communication with Americans hiding out in Kuwait, has enabled embassy officers to make “specific contact” with 1,984 of the estimated 2,500 Americans who were thought to have been in Kuwait when the crisis began, a State Department spokesman said.

The hub-and-spoke arrangement relies on dozens of embassy-appointed “wardens,” each of whom is responsible for maintaining contact with as many as 25 other Americans. Using secure cable lines, embassy officials then have managed to advise the State Department as to which Americans are safe and which have been taken into custody.

By eliminating the hub, Administration officials feared, the closure of the embassy would make American citizens in Kuwait far more vulnerable. The State Department refused to disclose exactly how many embassy personnel would remain in Kuwait to oversee the network, but the spokesman said officials were confident that they have “the right people” to do the job.

More than half of the 120 official Americans now in Kuwait are dependents, indicating that the exodus of family members and non-essential personnel to Iraq in the next two days is likely to total more than 80. The State Department said it was confident that the safety of those Americans would be guaranteed, but it protested an Iraqi decision to deny the same exit privileges to private Americans.

In announcing over the Voice of America that its embassy would remain open, the State Department assured U.S. citizens in Kuwait that Ambassador Howell and other diplomats “will serve our community to the best of their ability.”

“We are determined to continue working for your release from Kuwait and your safe return to your families,” it said.

But in an apparent reaction to mounting threats against Americans, the United States also modified its longstanding recommendation that U.S. citizens in Kuwait stay at home and keep a low profile.

For the first time, a message broadcast over the Voice of America mentioned the alternative of an “overland journey out of Kuwait.” But it warned that at least one person died attempting to cross the desert and urged anyone considering such a mission to “plan their route carefully.”

Asked the reason for the modification, the State Department spokesman said only: “The situation for Americans in Kuwait has changed.” He declined to elaborate.

Staff writer David Savage contributed to this report.