Waldheim Is Criticized Abroad for Visit to Hussein

Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was criticized by Israel and the West on Sunday for breaking international ranks on the Persian Gulf crisis to win the release of countrymen trapped in Iraq.

Waldheim, shunned by Western leaders because of controversy about his World War II service in the German army, returned with 96 Austrians on his chartered plane after appealing personally to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for their departure.

His success in bringing home the Austrians, which he said involved no concessions to Iraq, earned him a domestic popularity boost and prompted speculation that he could seek a second term as president when his six-year tenure ends in 1992.

The president, a former U.N. secretary general, was the first Western head of state to meet Hussein since Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Israeli and West European commentators said he had played into Hussein’s hands, and Austrian detractors said the visit would increase Waldheim’s isolation in the West.

U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft said on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley” that “I think one can sympathize with the leader of a country wanting to get his own citizens out.”

However, he added, “It would have been much more helpful if he had pleaded for the tens or hundreds of thousands of foreigners who find themselves trapped inside Kuwait and Iraq.”

Waldheim, in an interview Sunday, insisted that he did not break with the West’s solidarity against Hussein.

The independent Israeli daily Maariv said in an editorial: “Waldheim in Baghdad with Saddam. It takes one to know one. Better he should have stayed there.”

The mass-circulation Israeli tabloid Yediot Aharonot accused Waldheim of a “deal with the devil.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Baghdad meeting, but Health Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters after a Cabinet meeting: “I have no doubt that this meeting and combination is very appropriate for each other. Saddam Hussein and Mr. Waldheim fit each other.”

Britain’s Independent newspaper Sunday spoke of a grave error of judgment by Waldheim, whom it termed an outcast.

“His sad attempt to find someone pleased to see him can hardly be regarded as a breakthrough for his host. It should serve as a warning to more important countries not to break ranks,” the newspaper said.

Waldheim’s contacts as head of state have mostly been with Arab leaders, who respect him for what they see as his balanced handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict while U.N. chief from 1972 to 1982.

Waldheim, 71, urged the West to take up an offer by Hussein to negotiate an end to the military crisis but made clear the Iraqi leader had given no commitment to free all foreigners held or to withdraw from Kuwait.