France Will Join a Military Attack Only if There’s New Iraqi Aggression

France will intervene militarily if Iraq attacks any other country in the Persian Gulf region but will not automatically join a U.S. attack on Iraq, President Francois Mitterrand said Thursday.

Unless there is new Iraqi aggression, France will restrict itself to enforcing fully the U.N. embargo aimed at persuading Iraq to quit Kuwait and release foreign hostages, the president told a news conference.

Mitterrand added that he had spoken by telephone to President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Thursday. Gorbachev, he said, stressed that there should be no split in the international front demanding that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait and release foreign hostages.