Security Council Urges Emergency Jordan Aid

The Security Council urged Wednesday night that Jordan be given emergency financial aid to cushion the impact of U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

Both Jordan and Bulgaria pleaded for relief from the embargo in what was expected to be only the first of many requests from countries claiming to be hard hit by the embargo imposed after Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

The 15-member Security Council, meeting informally in a closed session, focused on Jordan as a particularly compelling case that might serve as a standard against which other claims could be considered, officials said.

Jordan, saying it faces losses of $1.5 billion a year, asked for $500 million in grants, loans and subsidized oil, but the Security Council did not recommend a specific figure for consideration by its sanctions committee.

The international organization is expected to draw up a plan for aid donated by the wealthier member nations. Thomas R. Pickering, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that the United States has committed an “extremely large” package, amid concern that Jordan is helping Iraq pierce the embargo.

He declined to discuss details with reporters.

Crispin Tickell, British ambassador to the United Nations, said after the council session that while there was concern that many other countries would file claims, “all agreed that Jordan was a special case and needed particular help.”

“Jordan is right up against the frontier (with Iraq) and is a virtually landlocked country,” he said.

The development came as the United States faced continued Soviet resistance to a proposed U.N. resolution allowing military force to back up sanctions against Iraq.

Pickering said he is optimistic that the five permanent members of the Security Council--the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, France and China--can work out problems and present a resolution to the full council as early as today.

“Language was worked on, progress was made. The United States still hopes for a Security Council meeting as early as tomorrow,” Pickering said Wednesday after talks involving the five permanent members.

Britain and France support the U.S. effort to gain broader international support for its aggressive policing of the embargo. The U.S.-sponsored resolution would allow foreign naval vessels to use minimum force in halting ships and inspecting cargo to determine if attempts are being made to break the embargo.

But the Soviet Union has demanded that military action be controlled by a U.N. committee--not unilaterally by a member nation, an arrangement insisted on by the United States.

Both the Soviets and the Chinese also have objected to a broad, unprecedented grant of military authority until there is clear evidence that the embargo has been breached. But China has indicated that it would abstain rather than oppose the resolution, while the Soviet Union has held out the threat of a veto.

The Soviets, wary of joining military action, urged diplomacy.

“The main obstacle is that force should be used very carefully and at due time,” Valentin V. Lozinsky told reporters on emerging from negotiations at the French mission.

The U.S. resolution “is premature,” he added, “because other means have not been exhausted.”

Any one of the permanent members of the Security Council can block a resolution.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III conferred with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze on the Soviets’ insistence that the council’s long-inactive Military Staff Committee be put in charge of directing embargo enforcement.

President Bush reiterated at a news conference in Kennebunkport, Me., that the United States believes it has authority to enforce the embargo on its own, based on Article 51 of the U.N. Charter empowering a member to respond to an attacked nation’s request for help--in this case, Kuwait.

But the United States, wanting to be portrayed as part of an international force instead of as just a lone adversary of Iraq, has vigorously sought the United Nations’ blessing for military action ever since U.S. warships fired warning shots across the bows of two oil tankers headed from Iraq to Yemen last weekend.

Momentum for the resolution slackened early Tuesday after Yemen promised to abide by the embargo and not unload the tankers’ oil.

In four resolutions, the Security Council has denounced Iraq’s invasion, declared an international economic boycott on Iraq, rejected Iraq’s proclaimed annexation of Kuwait, and demanded that all foreigners trapped in Kuwait and Iraq be allowed to go home.

However, it has not approved a blockade against Iraqi shipping, or sanctioned the U.S.-led multinational force deployed in the region to enforce the trade embargo. Under Article 42 of the U.N. Charter, the Security Council may call for a blockade and enforcement of its embargo through military force if sanctions have been violated. This article has never been invoked.

In pleading for U.N. help, Bulgarian President Zheliu Zhelev wrote Wednesday that, while his country strongly supports sanctions against Iraq, it is suffering “grave economic losses.”

He said Iraq’s $1.2-billion debt to Bulgaria was being paid back by oil shipments that are now cut off. Also, the country stands to lose more than $160 million this year from “the non-delivery of goods and the cutoff of international transport activities to Iraq and Kuwait.”