U.N.-Iraq Talks End Sourly; No Progress Noted

Two days of talks between U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and Iraq ended sourly here Saturday with a ringing Iraqi denunciation of the United States and of U.N. resolutions designed to force a withdrawal from conquered Kuwait.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz emerged from the talks here Saturday night with a 10-minute no-progress monologue.

“This is a complex and dramatic situation. Such a situation cannot be resolved by dramatic diplomacy. It needs patience,” Aziz said, making clear that while he had “listened carefully” to the U.N. leader, the two had found little common ground.

Perez de Cuellar came to Jordan on Thursday armed with U.N. resolutions demanding unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, restoration of the ousted Kuwaiti government and the release of all hostages held by the Baghdad government.

A month of unremitting regional tension appeared to ease a notch Friday, when Perez de Cuellar and Aziz decided to extend their talks to a second day Saturday.

After a morning round of talks between legal experts, the two diplomats met twice Saturday for more than four hours. As they talked, Jordanian officials spoke privately of progress in substantive discussions that they expected would continue today.

It didn’t turn out that way. On Friday, Aziz and Perez de Cuellar had shared the post-meeting spotlight on the steps outside Jordanian King Hussein’s limestone royal palace here in a brief encounter with jostling reporters.

Saturday, Aziz emerged alone, standing in stiff self-righteousness to drive home an Iraqi position on Kuwait that has yet to contemplate the unconditional withdrawal demanded by an unprecedented international unanimity.

He jabbed at the United States, a nation, he said, that “supports aggression” and that takes a flavor-of-the-month approach to global traumas.

“They select an international crisis . . . and tell the world this is the most important thing. They do this out of their selfish policies and self-interests,” Aziz asserted.

He pummeled the United Nations, an organization, he said, which voted sanctions in “a hasty decision” that never allowed Iraq the chance to present its case.

The U.N. Security Council, Aziz said, is controlled by five major powers, some of “which have not been good friends of this region. . . . The Security Council is an international body, yes, but it is formed of governments, and those governments are not neutral.”

“Imagine if the Arabs had the power of veto in the Security Council. . . ,” he pondered wistfully. “These resolutions would not have passed.”

In the United Nations, veto power is reserved to the five permanent members of the council, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France, all of which demand Iraq’s unconditional withdrawal and support the use of forceful measures to enforce a trade blockade against the Baghdad regime.

Iraq, backed by Jordan and a minority of Arab governments, links any eventual withdrawal from Kuwait to the departure of foreign troops from Saudi Arabia and demands that any talks also resolve regional problems, not just the issue of Kuwait.

“This is an Arab problem. It must be resolved by Arab means,” Aziz said.

For his part, Perez de Cuellar had almost nothing to say, pointing to his throat as he left the palace with the grimace of a sore-throated person with no words left. Asked by a shouting reporter if he and Aziz had discussed a withdrawal, the Peruvian diplomat replied hoarsely, “We discussed everything.” The U.N. leader has scheduled a press conference here this morning before leaving Jordan.

President Bush’s national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, confirmed that the talks in Amman had produced no real progress.

“That’s our understanding,” Scowcroft told reporters at Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me. “. . . After all, his negotiating framework is the five U.N. resolutions, and what he went there for was to impress upon Saddam Hussein that the world community has spoken. And so, unless Saddam Hussein is prepared to meet that framework, why, it’s difficult to see how there could be very successful negotiations.”

The apparent sinking of Perez de Cuellar’s initiative narrows the diplomatic search for a peaceful solution. Presidents Bush and Mikhail S. Gorbachev meet next Sunday with Kuwait on their minds. But the only ongoing effort that engages Iraq is a peace shuttle by Jordan’s King Hussein. The monarch is in the midst of a tour of North African and West European capitals, seeking support for a compromise end to the crisis.

Earlier in the day, smiling Jordanian officials expressed satisfaction that the talks had quickly focused on concrete issues. A high Jordanian official contended that even as delicate an issue as Iraq’s proclaimed annexation of Kuwait could be reversed through talks rather than threats of war.

“In one way or another, everything is on the table,” he said. “One can assume that substantive talks are under way and there can be some conclusion.”

One official suggested that agreement could be reached by replacing Iraqi troops in Kuwait with U.N. troops and American troops in Saudi Arabia with an all-Arab force.

King Hussein has been praised by Aziz for trying to work out an “Arab solution” to the crisis.

The term Arab solution has become a code word for giving Iraq a facing-saving way out, perhaps by ceding Baghdad some Kuwaiti territory and by barring the return to power of the Kuwaiti royal family.

But the unanimity implicit in the words Arab solution does not exist. A majority bloc of Arab countries led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia are calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait and reparation payments for damage.