Soviets Suggesting U.N. Military Role : Diplomacy: Shevardnadze warns of impending war. He cites global resolve in stopping Iraq’s ‘terrorism.’

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, in a toughly worded speech, warned Tuesday that a great war could erupt in the Persian Gulf “any day, any moment” and suggested that a U.N. military operation in the region may be possible.

Speaking on the second day of the 45th U.N. General Assembly, Shevardnadze noted that the United Nations “has the power to suppress acts of aggression” and hinted that it could be used unless Iraq ends what he called “its illegal occupation of Kuwait.”

“There is enough unity in this regard in the Security Council, and there is also the will and a high degree of consensus in the world community,” he declared.

But before any military moves are made, he added, all political and economic pressure must be applied. He appealed to Iraq’s leaders, as “old friends,” to “obey the demands of the law and also of plain common sense.”

He accused Iraq of carrying out “an act of terrorism against the emerging new world order” by invading Kuwait on Aug. 2, a date he referred to as “Black Thursday.” Until the invasion, the Soviet Union was Iraq’s strongest ally.

But on Tuesday, Shevardnadze said Baghdad has “flagrantly violated the United Nations Charter, the principles of international law, the universally recognized norms of morality and the standards of civilized behavior.”

Like French President Francois Mitterrand, who addressed the General Assembly on Monday, Shevardnadze said he saw a silver lining in the “black cloud” of the Persian Gulf crisis.

If the Arab states support the newly forged unity of world opinion, other Mideast “hotbeds of conflict”--even the Palestinian problem--can be resolved, he said.

Shevardnadze urged U.N. member states, “freed from the vestiges of the Cold War,” to return to the concepts of the U.N. Charter and devise “methods of protecting law and order on our planet.”

One way to do this, he said, would be to create a rapid response force made up of military units from several countries, including the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China. Soviet officials have raised this idea in the past two years as part of a proposal for revitalizing the Security Council’s Military Staff Committee.

The Military Staff Committee, which consists of senior military officers of the council’s five permanent members, has never been effective because of the superpower conflict that emerged almost simultaneously with the United Nations. But Shevardnadze said his government believes the time has come to give the council a means of dealing with military aggression, terrorism and hostage-taking by assigning national military units to serve as a rapid response force.

“The Soviet Union is prepared,” he said, “to conclude an appropriate agreement with the Security Council. We are sure that the other permanent members of the council and states that might be approached by it will do the same.”

He did not make it clear whether he was talking about a standing force or one that could be assembled quickly from designated units, but he implied that it would be a standing organization.

A spokesman for the U.S. Mission said there will be no comment from Washington until Secretary of State James A. Baker III appears before the General Assembly today.

An aide to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said U.N. officials would prefer that member states have units standing by to respond.

“A standing force would create more problems than it would be worth,” the aide said. “No. 1, how would it be financed? And next is the question of where it would be headquartered and who would be in command.”

At times Shevardnadze’s speech took on the tone of a confessional as he called for new disarmament efforts.

He pointed to Moscow’s “unfortunate experience” in overbuilding its defenses, and he blamed this not on evil intent but on “an erroneous assessment of the situation and a desire to protect the country against any eventuality.”

With global rivalry being replaced by cooperation, he said, there must be a renewed effort to halt the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons.