Iran, Syria Open Iraqi Borders to Most Refugees

Iran and Syria, two longtime foes of Baghdad, on Sunday declared their borders open to Western, Arab and Asian civilians held in Iraq.

Syrian authorities announced their decision as five Britons and an Australian, all construction workers on an Iraqi project, made it to the frontier in an overland escape by truck. “We told them (the Iraqis) we were going to Baghdad for a beer,” one said on arrival in Damascus. “We headed that way and then we turned left across the desert.”

With Jordan’s borders reopened, with the Syrian and Iranian decisions and with Turkey accepting foreigners set free by Baghdad, all of Iraq’s frontiers are open for passage out with the exception of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia, which also borders Iraq, has welcomed refugees from Kuwait, and presumably would take in any other foreign nationals that could reach its frontier.

Traffic tie-ups and technicalities have jammed the Jordanian and Turkish crossing points over the past two weeks, and if Baghdad permits organized departures through Syria and Iran the pressure will ease. There was no immediate word from the Iraqis on the decisions by the Syrians and Iranians, who said passage would be granted on humanitarian grounds.

Hundreds of thousands of foreigners remain trapped in Iraq and Kuwait, and President Saddam Hussein’s regime has refused exit for about 12,000 Americans, Britons and other Westerners except in a few instances. Citizens of countries whose ships have not joined the naval blockade, for instance, have been allowed out, as well as the wives and children of detained diplomats.

As more West European warships steamed toward the gulf, the Soviet Union announced in Moscow that its ships would not take part in armed enforcement of U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq.

At a press conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Soviet ships would not join the force unless the Security Council specifically set up a blockade mission. He said, however, that the weekend Security Council resolution approving “measures commensurate to the specific circumstances,” which Moscow supported, permits an armed blockade by American-dominated naval task forces.

Baghdad on Sunday decried the U.N. decision, declaring it illegal. Iraqi authorities also reiterated their warning that food shortages in the country would be shared by detained foreigners.

In Kuwait city, the standoff continued between defiant diplomats at more than 20 embassies and Iraqi military authorities who have ordered the missions shut down and evacuated. Latest reports said Iraqi soldiers had made no move to force out the skeleton staffs, which include U.S. Ambassador W. Nathaniel Howell and a few of his officers, but that power to the buildings had been cut.

London officials said that electricity to their embassy was off again Sunday. It was on briefly early Saturday.

Meanwhile, according to a press pool report from Saudi Arabia, two Iraqi jet fighters took off from a Kuwait air base at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and headed directly for the Saudi border. An American AWACS radar spotted the sortie and ordered two U.S. warplanes to the area, the report said, but the Iraqi jets turned back before reaching Saudi air space.

Gulf sources reported late Saturday that the Iraqis had not had their planes in the air for the past few days.

In another development, Arab diplomats and travelers who arrived in Syria on Sunday after fleeing Iraq said that the Baghdad regime has executed scores of senior military officers, including a major general and five brigadiers, for refusing to take part in the invasion of Kuwait.

They said the officers were put to death on the orders of President Hussein. Cairo’s Al Ahram newspaper reported on Aug. 9 that 120 Iraqi officers were executed for opposing the invasion. Iraq had denied the Egyptian daily’s report.