GULF WATCH: Day 30 : A Daily Briefing Paper on Developments in the Crisis

L.A. Times Archives

Sept. 1, 1990 12 AM PT

Diplomatic Front:

President Bush rewarded Cairo’s support in the standoff against Iraq by agreeing to cancel $7.1 billion in debts that Egypt owes the United States. Administration officials also said the President is considering a massive new weapons sale to Israel, and that he may meet with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev within a week in a sign of superpower unity against Iraq.

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar met for five hours with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz in Amman, Jordan. They agreed to meet again today. (Aziz told reporters that all foreigners in Iraq would be allowed to leave the country if Perez de Cuellar could produce guarantees against a military attack from the West.

At his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me., President Bush phoned the leaders of Britain, France and Saudi Arabia in his effort to shore up support for his plan to share the mounting costs of the U.S. military deployment in Saudi Arabia. Military Front:

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, said the United States has no plans to use offensive military force in the region soon. “There is not going to be any war unless the Iraqis attack,” he said in a news conference in Saudi Arabia. In the Red Sea, U.S. Navy crewmen from a guided missile cruiser boarded an Iraqi tanker. They allowed the vessel to proceed when it was determined to be empty, the Pentagon said. Defense officials said the boarding was the first of an Iraqi ship by the Navy in the blockade of Iraqi commerce. Trade Front:

The otherwise-tight U.N. trade embargo against Iraq eased slightly Friday as India notified Western governments that it plans to send a ship to Iraqi-occupied Kuwait carring 10,000 tons of food and medicine.

Rising oil prices forced another big jump in airline fares. The International Air Transport Assn., which administers a global air fare cartel, said the world’s major airlines have decided to boost international air fares by 5% to 8% to offset higher fuel costs and insurance premiums resulting from the gulf crisis. 1. Crisis Indicators:

U.S. troops on the ground: 50,000+

U.S. sailors aboard ships in region: 35,000

U.S. ships in region or en route: 70

U.S. reservists to be mobilized: up to 49,703

Iraqi troops in/near Kuwait: 265,000

Iraqi tanks in Kuwait: 1,500

U.S. diplomats remaining in Kuwait: 10

U.S. diplomats and dependents held in Iraq: 58

Other Americans detained in Iraq and Kuwait: 75

Total Americans in Iraq and Kuwait: 2,850

Total Westerners in Iraq and Kuwait: 11,950

High temperature in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 108