U.N. Chief Heads Home Alarmed, Empty-Handed

A chastened U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who came to the Middle East seeking peace, headed home alarmed and empty-handed Sunday after an inflexible Iraq rejected his overtures seeking the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

“The present situation is very explosive,” the somber U.N. chief told reporters after two days of talks with intransigent Tarik Aziz, Iraq’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

“I came with the hope of moving ahead. Unfortunately, I have not been very successful. I am being very honest. I am not playing diplomacy with you. I have been disappointed,” Perez de Cuellar said in response to a reporter’s question during a news conference in a richly wallpapered salon at the Basman royal palace compound here.

Stymied by a U.N.-Iraq deadlock, Perez de Cuellar called for “determination and urgency” to find a peaceful solution for the Persian Gulf crisis, “concerning the gravity and dangers of which there should be no illusion.”

Any fresh U.N. diplomatic initiatives, he indicated, would await the outcome of this weekend’s encounter between President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Helsinki.

“The root of the problem is the invasion and annexation of Kuwait,” Perez de Cuellar said. “Let’s hope the (Helsinki) meeting will lead to a solution.”

The U.N. chief had come to Jordan to urge compliance with Security Council resolutions calling for Iraq to unconditionally withdraw from the oil sheikdom it invaded Aug. 2 and subsequently declared to be a part of Iraq despite a massive American-led military buildup in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The talks with Aziz on Friday and Saturday did not progress as he had expected, Perez de Cuellar lamented. What did he expect?: “A clear-cut determination to withdraw from Kuwait, that’s what I expected.”

Instead, Aziz reiterated Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s rejection of the U.N. resolutions and his anger at an international economic blockade, Perez de Cuellar said, responding in kind to questions in English, French and Spanish.

“I haven’t detected any change (in the Iraqi position) that I consider significant in the context of the Security Council resolutions,” the Peruvian diplomat said.

For his part, Aziz signaled the failure of the talks after they ended Saturday night in a monologue attacking U.N. moves against Iraq and the United States for enforcing them.

Perez de Cuellar flew to Paris on Sunday, where he expected to meet with Jordan’s King Hussein, whose own long-shot peace initiative is the only one remaining that directly engages renegade Iraq.

From Paris, Perez de Cuellar returns to New York where, he said, he would report to the 15-member Security Council on his lack of progress in talks that covered the gamut of issues without breaking new ground.

“On the political side, the minister (Aziz) stressed to me, as he has stated publicly, that his government would take no step that could escalate the military situation,” Perez de Cuellar said in a prepared press statement. The United States believes that only its prompt military response short-circuited an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia from occupied Kuwait.

“On the humanitarian side, the minister drew particular attention to the need for adequate food and medical supplies to the people of Iraq,” the U.N. secretary general said.

Perez de Cuellar said while he welcomed Hussein’s decision to allow women and children from foreign countries to leave Iraq, he had also urged that all remaining foreigners should be allowed to go.

In the course of the discussions, the U.N. diplomat said without elaboration, “I suggested ways of dealing with all aspects of the crisis.”

Aziz, he said, had stressed the well-known Iraqi view that the crisis is an Arab one that must be resolved by the Arabs themselves without outside intervention.

Perez de Cuellar demurred, he said, telling Aziz that the global interests involved and the buildup of military forces in the region “made it clear that the United Nations, as well as Arab governments, would have to be involved in resolving the many issues at stake.”

“As I leave Amman, I must acknowledge a certain disappointment,” Perez de Cuellar said in his statement. “I had hoped for more. . . . I would have liked to inform the Security Council that real progress had been made during the discussions here but, in all honesty, I cannot do so at present. Nor can I anticipate the council’s reaction.”