Iraq Surrounds U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, Detains Evacuees : Gulf crisis: Detention of American diplomats breaks promise that they could leave Baghdad. The Administration calls it ‘another stark example of Iraqi duplicity.’

Iraq began surrounding and sealing off foreign embassies in occupied Kuwait on Friday and, breaking its earlier promises of safe passage, announced it would detain in Baghdad a contingent of American diplomats who earlier left Kuwait.

American officials said Iraqi soldiers took up positions at the entry and exit to the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait. “They’re just not letting anybody through,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. The situation was the same at the British Embassy, where British diplomats said Iraqi authorities had cut off all electricity.

In all, about 20 countries defied Iraq’s order to close down their embassies in Kuwait, which Iraqi President Saddam Hussein claims has become part of Iraq since his troops invaded the country Aug. 2.

The U.N. Security Council early today passed a resolution authorizing minimum use of military force to support the international trade sanctions against Iraq. The vote was 13 to 0 with two abstentions.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said the system by which American diplomats were phoning representatives of the 2,500 Americans trapped in Kuwait had begun to break down because Iraqi authorities were monitoring the embassy’s local calls to find out where Westerners are living.

The wife of one British diplomat, who fled Thursday night from Kuwait to Jordan, said in a British television interview that Westerners in Kuwait were living in fear and were pleading, “Get the Americans in here--fast.”

Others who left Kuwait told the network that public order was breaking down in Kuwait city, the capital, and that the Iraqi army was trying to maintain control by hanging looters.

The Bush Administration was particularly outraged by Iraq’s decision to hold a contingent of 100 American diplomats and their families in Baghdad after their arrival in a 33-car convoy following a 19-hour trip from Kuwait. The group, which included about 30 children, had intended to proceed to Turkey.

On Friday night, Iraq announced it would allow the wives and children of the diplomats, as well as female diplomats, to leave Iraq. Baghdad Radio quoted an Iraqi official spokesman as saying that the decision was made on humanitarian grounds and in response to an appeal by Jordan’s King Hussein (no relation to Saddam Hussein). The spokesman added, however, that male diplomats would be required to remain in Iraq.

Administration officials said that since Aug. 9, Iraq had been assuring U.S. diplomats they would be allowed to leave Kuwait or Iraq. But early Friday, Iraq informed U.S. officials of new regulations that bar the departure of personnel from embassies that stay open in Kuwait.

There was no indication that the new rules applied only to Americans, but only the U.S. diplomats from Kuwait were known to have been held up in Baghdad. State Department officials said Iraqi authorities did not physically detain the U.S. diplomats and permitted them to move to the residences of other American diplomats in Baghdad.

“We have another stark example of Iraqi duplicity,” Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said. “We have strongly protested to the Iraqi government this outrageous breach of international law and its violation of repeated Iraqi commitments to allow travel of our diplomats from Kuwait out of Iraq.”

Although Iraq had set Friday as the general deadline for complying with its order to close embassies in Kuwait, there was confusion about the exact time at which the order was to take effect.

“I’ve seen four different deadlines in the past 24 hours,” one State Department official said. “Different people (in the Iraqi government) give different ones.”

About 120 American diplomats and dependents had been at the embassy in Kuwait, but about 100 left in the convoy to Baghdad. Boucher said the figures were not exact and acknowledged that the State Department wanted to avoid giving specific numbers.

Ambassador W. Nathaniel Howell and a small staff of diplomats stayed on inside the embassy, now surrounded by a contingent of up to 12 Iraqi troops. State Department officials said the embassy still had water and electricity Friday, but they refused to say whether the utilities were being provided from outside, as usual, or from emergency generators and supplies inside the embassy compound.

Boucher said Howell and his staff planned to try to keep in touch by phone with other Americans in Kuwait “as much as circumstances allow.” But the State Department spokesman said communication with private Americans inside Kuwait had become difficult, both because telephone service is sporadic and because the Iraqis appeared to be listening in on the embassy’s phone calls as part of an effort to track down Americans.

“For that reason, our telephone conversations with the American community are very short, and the information passed is that they are well and safe, and in some cases that they have moved location, but never saying where they have moved to,” Boucher reported.

By midday, the Iraqi troops had prevented at least one embassy vehicle and driver from entering the compound. Boucher said the troops permitted one private American, who was not further identified, to leave the embassy.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, briefing reporters at President Bush’s vacation retreat in Kennebunkport, Me., said there has been no direct confrontation between the Iraqi soldiers and the American diplomats.

“They have not made any move against the embassy or intruded in any fashion,” Fitzwater said.

He said the the Administration now considers the diplomats and their families to be hostages of the Iraqi government, along with as many as 12,000 other Westerners trapped in Iraq and Kuwait.

“Suffice it to say that the President has been very clear in saying that we consider all Americans and indeed all foreign nationals . . . as hostages to the aggressive ambitions of Saddam Hussein,” Fitzwater said. “The United States . . . reminds Iraq that it will be held responsible for the safety and well-being of American citizens being held hostage.”

Among the countries refusing to close down their embassies are Britain, France, West Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Troops were reported to have surrounded some of these embassies and to be patrolling near others.

In a particularly strong statement, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd stressed at an afternoon news conference that the Iraqis would be held personally responsible for any physical harm to the four embassy staff members Britain has left behind in Kuwait.

“Every Iraqi in a position of authority should understand what is involved, not for his government but for him,” Hurd said angrily. He said the Foreign Office sent an official note to authorities in Baghdad on Thursday that drew “particular attention to the fact that Iraqi citizens will be held personally responsible . . . for their involvement in illegal actions.”

“This principle will apply equally to individual members of the Iraqi armed forces and civilian authorities at whatever level of responsibility. It seems to me very important that this message should be rammed home.”

At least six countries elected to close down their embassies--including, most prominently, the Soviet Union and Jordan.

A special Aeroflot flight flew the last Soviet evacuees from Kuwait back home from Baghdad, the Tass news service quoted a Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. That left the Soviet Embassy in Kuwait empty, but Soviet officials denied they had closed it to accede to Iraqi demands.

“Actually, the embassy has ceased to function, but in the international legal sense we are not closing our embassy,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri A. Gremitskikh said.

“We do not regard ourselves as bound by Iraqi authorities’ decision to close embassies in Kuwait, since this decision is in glaring contradiction with international law,” Gremitskikh said. “The Soviet Union continues to regard the state of Kuwait as an essential participant in the world community and maintains diplomatic relations with it.”

The evacuation of about 8,000 Soviet nationals from Iraq is to begin Sunday, officials in Moscow said. Women and children are to leave Baghdad first and will be flown home directly.

Amman Radio reported that Jordan closed its embassy in Kuwait, making the Hashemite kingdom the first Arab country to abide by Iraq’s decree. Jordan’s King Hussein, with close ties to Iraq, has attempted to mediate a peaceful solution to the crisis and has failed to completely heed the U.N.-sanctioned embargo of Iraq.

Four other countries--the Philippines, India, Lebanon and Venezuela--were reported to have shut their embassy operations in Kuwait.

Times staff writers Nick B. Williams Jr., in Manama, Bahrain; Mark Fineman, in London, and John-Thor Dahlburg, in Moscow, contributed to this report.

SHOWDOWN IN KUWAIT

Iraqi troops began patrolling outside at least nine embassies in Kuwait city--including the U.S. mission--as diplomats defied an order to close their doors. As with all embassies worldwide, the grounds of the American Embassy are considered the sovereign territory of the United States. In keeping the embassy open, the Administration makes clear that it does not recognize Iraqi sovereignty over Kuwait and that it hopes to preserve a network that provides the last thread of official contact with an estimated 2,500 Americans trapped in Iraqi-held Kuwait.

Surrounded & Open: United States Britain France Romania Japan Sweden Norway Hungary Canada Vowed to remain open: Austria Yugoslavia China Belgium Greece Ireland Italy Spain Portugal Bulgaria Netherlands Luxembourg Denmark W. Germany Turkey