Iraq Orders Its Tankers Not to Challenge Blockade, U.S. Says : Gulf crisis: Bush takes a ‘no compromise’ stance. Both sides appear to be avoiding confrontation. President doubts U.N. mediation will lead to a quick resolution.

Iraq has issued new orders to its tanker captains to avoid challenging the U.S.-led blockade of its shipping, and at least some Iraqi tankers are now sailing in circles to stay out of port, U.S. officials said Monday.

The new indications that Iraq may be trying to back away from confrontation with the United States--information based on U.S. intelligence reports--came as President Bush issued a strong “no compromise” line toward talks with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Bush’s spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said earlier Monday that the Administration “welcomes” a negotiating mission by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who plans to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz in Jordan on Thursday. Hussein also has indicated a willingness to meet with Perez de Cuellar, U.S. officials said.

But Bush made it clear that the negotiators will have little room to maneuver.

“There is no flexibility on Iraq getting out of Kuwait and the rulers being permitted to come back,” Bush said during a news conference here with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

“There is no room for compromise or negotiation on that point,” Bush said.

But while the language here remained tough, the actions in the gulf appeared to be pointing toward a de-escalation of the crisis. Ships from both Iraq and the United States seem to be avoiding confrontation, officials said.

Over the weekend, U.S. naval vessels boarded one non-Iraqi merchant ship in the Red Sea, Pentagon officials said. The boarding took place without incident.

But after firing shots across the bow of two Iraqi tankers Aug. 18, the Navy in the last few days has quietly allowed those Iraqi tankers and one other to sail into Yemen’s port of Aden. Yemen has pledged not to allow those tankers to unload any oil, and so far, U.S. officials say, the Yemeni authorities have kept that pledge.

Last week, Administration officials had indicated the United States would use force to prevent the tankers from reaching Aden, fearful that Yemen, which has supported Iraq, would allow oil to be unloaded from the tankers and then shipped out again. But over the weekend, those signals changed and the ships were allowed into port.

Clearly, said one Administration official, the standoff has “reached a fork in the road” and “there has been a shift from tension to diplomacy.”

As the tension eases, Administration officials continue to worry that citizens of Western nations may tire of the confrontation, or that Hussein may be able to gain more Arab support for his position. Bush’s statements were designed in part to set a firm tone and to try to prevent negotiations from eroding the unprecedented international support that the U.S.-led anti-Iraq effort has received so far.

“We’re dealing with a history of Iraq reneging on promises,” an Administration official said. Bush wanted to make clear that “we’re not going to be fooled. We’re not going to be lulled,” the official said.

In another effort to keep support from eroding, Bush plans to return to Washington today to brief members of Congress on the crisis. So far, he said at his news conference, “the support has been overwhelming” and “differences have seemed to end at the water’s edge.” But Administration planners are aware that the level of congressional support may not last as the conflict stretches out into the fall.

The President plans to stay in Washington until Thursday, scheduling meetings with advisers as his aides seek to defuse criticism that he has spent too much time at his vacation home in Maine, rather than in the capital, as the gulf crisis has raged. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who has been on vacation in Wyoming for the last week, also plans to return to Washington, said his spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler.

Officials say a key step in getting to the current stage of diplomacy was the U.N. Security Council vote Saturday approving the use of force to back up the U.N.-mandated trade embargo against Iraq.

Earlier in the crisis, the Administration had been reluctant to pursue diplomatic initiatives, concerned that any delay in implementing the embargo would play to Iraq’s advantage and allow Hussein to find ways around the embargo before the noose had been drawn tight.

But once Soviet officials made it clear that they would support the Security Council resolution sought by the United States, Iraq’s bargaining leverage was reduced, the officials said.

The statement by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev indicating support for the U.S. position at the United Nations was “like a 2-by-4 hitting them across the forehead,” an Administration official said, noting that now Perez de Cuellar will go to the Middle East with a “stronger position.”

The result, the official said, is “this glimmer of an opening” toward a diplomatic solution of the crisis.

Nonetheless, U.S. officials were quick to say that the crisis is far from over. There is “very little” expectation that Perez de Cuellar’s mission will lead quickly to a resolution, a senior Administration official said.

Bush, at his news conference, gave the same opinion. “I don’t yet see fruitful negotiations,” he said.

U.S. officials expect Hussein will be reluctant to negotiate seriously until the economic embargo on Iraq has begun to pinch harder, and they concede they do not know clearly how long that will take.

Meanwhile, the massive military buildup continued in Saudi Arabia, where a delegation of eight U.S. congressmen visited troops and received briefings for a few hours Monday. The delegation, led by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), then headed to Egypt for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. They are expected to discuss with him the possibility of sending additional Egyptian troops to Saudi Arabia to bolster the Arab military presence.

Members of the delegation agreed that they were convinced after reviewing the troops that the U.S. and multinational forces could effectively deter any Iraqi attack.

“Based on what we have seen here, I think that Saddam Hussein would be committing national suicide if he attempted an attack on Saudi Arabia at this time,” said Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman.

Among the new armaments arriving Monday were 100 M-1 tanks from the 24th Mechanized Division, based at Ft. Stewart, Ga., roughly one-third of the division’s tanks. The landing of the tanks is a key step in the buildup, giving the U.S. forces in the Middle East their first large contingent of heavy main battle tanks.

Battle tanks constitute one area in which Iraq has much greater forces than the United States in the region.

And one of Saudi Arabia’s neighbors, the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar, said it would allow the United States and other “friendly forces” to use airfields and ports there for military support of the Saudi Arabian military buildup.

It was the first time that Qatar had publicly acknowledged that it would permit foreign troops to use its territory. Qatar quietly allowed the basing of small contingents of U.S. military personnel during the 1988 Persian Gulf tanker escort operation.

Times staff writer Kim Murphy, in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

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