Iraqi Sees Gorbachev, May Want a Mediator : Diplomacy: Kremlin anger appears to grow over Baghdad’s refusal to obey U.N. order on Kuwait.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz met with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday amid suggestions that Baghdad wants Moscow to mediate the crisis in the Persian Gulf region.

But the Soviet Union appeared increasingly angered by Iraq’s refusal to obey the U.N. Security Council’s call for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait.

Aziz’s discussion of the situation with Gorbachev was described as frank by the official Soviet news agency Tass, which had earlier reported Moscow’s acute frustration that its diplomacy and that of other countries had failed to bring about an Iraqi withdrawal.

Although Tass provided no details of Aziz’s meeting with Gorbachev, the Iraqi ambassador to Moscow, Ghafil Jassim Hussein, told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that Baghdad hopes the Soviet Union can help mediate the conflict.

“We have common viewpoints directed at the peaceful solution of the conflict,” the ambassador said. “We still hope that the Soviet Union will be able to perform the role of peacemaker and remain the loyal friend of the Arabs.”

Noting the Soviet commitment to resolve the crisis through political rather than military means, Tass quoted senior Foreign Ministry officials as emphasizing, before the Aziz-Gorbachev meeting, Moscow’s desire “for the moment, at least, to maintain permanent diplomatic contact with Iraqi leaders.”

Until now, these contacts, including a visit to Moscow in mid-August by Iraq’s deputy prime minister, Saddoun Hamadi, have not produced “the desired result--the immediate withdrawal of all Iraqi troops from Kuwait and the restoration of that country’s independence and sovereignty.”

Aziz was sent to Moscow by President Saddam Hussein in advance of the meeting this weekend in Helsinki of Gorbachev and President Bush, who will discuss the Persian Gulf crisis and other international issues. Aziz will address a press conference here today.

“Gorbachev is the best pipeline to Bush that Saddam Hussein could have,” a senior European diplomat commented. “He not only is authoritative as a messenger, but his comments as the leader of the other superpower will have to be listened to and weighed carefully. . . .

“But I think the Iraqis are misjudging Gorbachev if they expect his sympathy, let alone his support. This is a crisis that the Soviet Union wants no more than the West, for it destroys the ‘peaceful international environment,’ as they put it, for their domestic reforms.”

A commentator in the government newspaper Izvestia, Leonid Koryavin, said Wednesday that Hussein, misjudging the fundamental changes in international relations, had probably expected to force a split between the Soviet Union, long an ally, and the United States.

“Had all this happened several years ago, we certainly would have taken a different stand,” Koryavin said. “Baghdad apparently assumed that we would declare as aggression not its attack on Kuwait but the landing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.”

The crisis, in fact, has strengthened trust between the two superpowers, Koryavin continued, noting that neither Moscow nor Washington tried to take advantage of it and that both were cooperating to find a peaceful solution

Soviet officials said earlier that Gorbachev will press Bush in Helsinki to undertake new efforts through the United Nations to secure Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait and will renew Moscow’s longstanding proposal for a Middle East peace conference that could address all the problems of the region.

Meeting with a congressional delegation led by the Senate minority leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, Gorbachev said he will report on his discussions with Aziz, but he reaffirmed the Soviet commitment to ensuring the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait through U.N. sanctions and other political means.