Iraq Beefs Up Its Troop Strength on Saudi Border

Iraq has continued to build up its troop concentrations along the Saudi border, increasing its forces to 360,000 over the last two weeks while moving large numbers of tanks and artillery back from the front lines, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The force compares to defense intelligence estimates of 265,000 men in roughly the same area two weeks ago. During the same period, the number of tanks has increased from 2,200 to 2,800.

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams characterized the buildup as gradual, rather than a “sudden surge.”

Williams said the Iraqi troops remain in defensive formations but are capable of quickly moving to the offensive. He said Iraqi commanders have shifted tanks, armored vehicles and artillery back from the Saudi border and moved infantry units forward, although he declined to speculate about what the changes mean.

But a senior American military officer, interviewed separately, said the new deployment clearly indicates that the Iraqis are preparing for an assault by U.S.-led forces and are putting their armor in the rear to be in position to launch a counterattack.

“Iraq firmly believes we’re going to attack,” the officer said. He said that the disposition of the Iraqi troops indicates they may be prepared to “stay and fight and die in place. . . . We’re just not sure about the willpower of the Iraqi army. But they must know they can’t win.”

In Damascus, in another sudden high-level move in the gulf crisis, Syrian President Hafez Assad disclosed Tuesday that he will go to Tehran next week for talks with Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The visit, Assad’s first to Iran, comes on the heels of Tehran’s decision to normalize relations with Iraq. The announcement, made simultaneously in Amman and Tehran, said the invitation came from Rafsanjani but gave no further details.

“This comes as a complete surprise,” a Western diplomat here said.

Iran’s developing relations with Syria are certain to be a key topic, diplomats here said. Another topic could be the issue of Western hostages in Lebanon. Both Syria and Iran have been instrumental in the release of five hostages this year, including two Americans.

Also on Tuesday, the Pentagon said the U.S. Navy had boarded a Soviet vessel in the Red Sea on Monday but had allowed it to proceed after determining that it was not carrying prohibited cargo.

A team of Navy and Coast Guard officers from the guided missile cruiser Biddle boarded the Soviet ship, the Pyotr Masherov, after the Soviet skipper granted permission. The inspection was part of the multinational naval effort to enforce the United Nations trade embargo against Iraq.

The Soviet ship proceeded to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, Williams said. He said there was no protest from the Soviet government.

The boarding of the Pyotr Masherov was the first time that a Soviet ship has been inspected in the month that the United States and other nations have been interdicting shipping headed for Iraq. Ships from Italy and Turkey also were boarded and allowed to proceed without incident Monday, defense officials said.

To date there have been 1,030 intercepts of ship traffic in the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, Williams said. Such actions range from routine radio interrogation to forced boardings. Seventy ships have been boarded, and five of them were diverted from intended ports because they were carrying banned cargo to Iraq.

The announcement of Assad’s visit to Tehran was made as an Iranian delegation left Baghdad after three days of talks on restoring diplomatic ties, the first high-level meeting between the two gulf powers in a decade.

Syria supported Iran in its 1980-88 war with Iraq, and Syria and Iran have both condemned Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

Assad said last Thursday, a day before his talks with Secretary of States James A. Baker III, that the invasion and the resulting crisis were “painful for every Arab citizen.”

“The problem now,” he said, “is not the presence of foreign troops in the gulf. The problem is Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. This invasion allowed foreign troops to come to Saudi Arabia and the gulf.”

He said it was “a disgrace to see one Arab country invade another” and that it “is not the Arab way in Arab history for the big to eat the small.”

The problem of Kuwait “should be solved between the Arabs,” he said, and added:

“When it is over, I am sure that all foreign troops will withdraw. But first, all Arab countries should stand together against the invasion of one Arab brother by another. It offers to the enemies of the Arab nation a great historic gain.”

Assad said that Syria will send more troops to Saudi Arabia to join the 3,500 Syrians already deployed there. No timetable or numbers have been made public but, according to diplomats in Damascus, an armored division may be sent, along with other forces, or 15,000 to 20,000 additional troops.

In announcing the invitation to Assad, Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency said, “Observers attach special significance to President Assad’s visit (because of) the crisis in the gulf.”

Iran’s three-man delegation to Iraq, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, left Baghdad amid signs of a possible hitch in negotiations. Although Mottaki called the discussions “positive, fruitful and friendly,” the exchange of prisoners from the 1980-88 war--an emotional issue for Iran--apparently hit a snag. Iraq announced Sunday that the exchange of prisoners had been halted. No reason was given, and there has been no confirmation from Tehran.

A week after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, President Saddam Hussein, pressed by mounting international opposition, proposed to end a hostile two-year truce with Iran by accepting peace on Tehran’s terms. Rafsanjani quickly agreed.

Iraqi troops were withdrawn from territory seized from Iran, and Iraq agreed to a 50-50 division of the Shatt al Arab, the waterway that forms the southern border between the two countries. An estimated 100,000 prisoners on both sides began returning home.

International Red Cross officials said about 25,000 still remained to be exchanged last weekend when Iraq announced that the program had been interrupted.

Agreement to restore diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors for the first time since Iraqi forces invaded Iran in September, 1980, was the culmination of Baghdad’s diplomatic campaign to neutralize Iran in the gulf crisis.

In a visit to Tehran last week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz made the offer and Mottaki flew to Baghdad on Sunday to begin negotiations. He reportedly was instructed to arrange a visit by the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati.

The improvement of relations between Iran and Iraq has led to concern in the United States and other countries that Iran might rescind its support of the U.N. embargo on trade with Iraq. The early hard line that Iran took in the gulf crisis has shown signs of softening.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi newspaper reported Tuesday that Saadoun Shaker, a friend of Saddam Hussein and a member of the Iraqi Revolution Command Council, had resigned because of failing health.

The government newspaper, Al Waqai al Iraqiya, gave no further details, although some Western diplomats said they believe Shaker had been forced out for opposing Hussein’s Kuwait policy.

In Cairo, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying there were divisions on policy matters concerning Kuwait among other key Hussein aides, among them Foreign Minister Aziz.

Cairo Radio reported that Iraqi troops supported by tanks had taken up strong new positions near a number of diplomatic compounds in Kuwait, including the U.S. Embassy. It offered no suggestion as to what the Iraqis’ intent might be.

Broder reported from Washington and Williams from Damascus, Syria.

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