France Leads Verbal Attack on Baghdad as U.N. Debate Opens : Diplomacy: Mitterrand says he’s ‘disgusted’ by Iraq’s actions. Other nations, large and small, join in chorus of criticism.

French President Francois Mitterrand on Monday led a chorus of attacks against Iraq as nations large and small denounced the invasion of Kuwait in the opening of general debate at the 45th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

“I say there is no compromise as long as Iraq does not comply with Security Council resolutions” imposing a trade embargo on Baghdad and demanding that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait, Mitterrand declared in a toughly worded address.

“The sovereignty of (Kuwait) is not negotiable,” he said. “ . . . How could we not be disgusted by the taking of thousands of hostages. . . ? In the name of what can one decide that this state has ceased to exist? In the name of the law of planes, tanks and trucks?”

Mitterrand acknowledged “traditional ties” between France and Iraq but declared that France’s first allegiance is to the law.

He bitterly referred to what he called the “pillaging” of the French ambassador’s residence in Kuwait by Iraqi troops earlier this month, which prompted him to send assault troops to join the U.S.-led force in the Persian Gulf and to demand the addition of an air embargo to the sanctions against Iraq. A U.N. Security Council vote on the air embargo is expected today.

Iraq has apologized to France for the raid on the ambassador’s quarters but Paris has rejected the apology, and Mitterrand told the 160-nation General Assembly that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered “not one gesture, not one word” to defuse the crisis.

If Iraq pulls out of Kuwait, the U.S.-led forces could then withdraw from the gulf, leading to new prospects for peace in the entire Mideast, Mitterrand said.

As Mitterrand spoke, Iraqi Ambassador Abdul Amir al Anbari listened without emotion from his seat in the General Assembly. Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz has said he will not attend the three-week assembly session because the United States refused landing rights for the government-owned plane he and other members of Baghdad’s delegation intended to fly to New York.

From Brazil’s President Fernando Collor de Mello to Prime Minister Kennedy Simmonds of St. Kitts and Nevis, the United Nations’ second-smallest member, world leaders assailed Iraq and backed the Security Council sanctions.

Even Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati took the rostrum to declare that his government “reaffirms its commitment to comply” with the trade ban. Velayati pointed out acidly, however, the contrast between the world’s reaction to the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait and the attack on Iran by Iraq a decade earlier.

“Not a single word was uttered then by the champions of international law,” he asserted.

He said reciprocal visits by Iranian and Iraqi officials after the outbreak of the crisis last month--which aroused Western suspicions that Tehran was preparing to violate the U.N. sanctions--dealt only with bilateral issues remaining from the war between the two nations.

Velayati also warned other Islamic nations that the invasion of Kuwait has “supplied the pretext for foreign powers to dispatch their forces to the Persian Gulf” with the intention of creating a long-term presence.

“Lasting peace can only be provided by countries of the region,” he argued.

The only representative of the former Soviet Bloc to speak on the opening day was Polish Foreign Minister Krzysztof Skubiszewski, who pledged his support for the international force in Saudi Arabia.

With the cost of quarantining Iraq a growing concern for others as well, the Security Council sent the issue of compensation for Jordan, one of Baghdad’s hardest-hit former trade partners, back to its sanctions committee.

The council last week considered a committee recommendation that it endorse a $1.9-billion bail-out for Jordan, along with an exemption for Amman from the ban on importing Iraqi oil. Unable to agree, largely because of resentment over Jordanian King Hussein’s openly sympathetic attitude toward Iraq despite his support for the sanctions, the council adopted a noncommittal measure calling for it to further examine all aid requests.