U.S.-European Split Stalling Jordan Aid Plan

A split between the United States and its European allies is stalling plans to aid Jordan, one of the countries suffering most from the effects of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iraq.

The split became public Friday as Italian Foreign Minister Gianni De Michelis, current chairman of the European Community, briefed reporters on the Europeans’ increasingly independent foreign policy.

Although De Michelis did not discuss the difference directly, he said that foreign ministers of the European Community’s 12 nations will discuss implementation of the sanctions against Iraq at an extraordinary session in Rome next week.

Aides to De Michelis, speaking on condition that they not be identified, said one of the chief issues at the Rome meeting will be how to assist Jordan, hard hit by the embargo of the nation that was its biggest trading partner.

The Security Council was poised last week to adopt a $2-billion aid plan for Jordan, but the proposal was sidetracked by the United States, European diplomats said. They asserted that Washington is overly influenced by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, both angered by King Hussein’s public support of Iraq and his private assurances to them just before the attack on Kuwait that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had only peaceful intentions.

Although they say they understand Saudi outrage over Jordan, the Europeans are concerned that failure to rescue the Hashemite kingdom will topple its monarch and bring a radical regime to power that could extend Iraqi influence to Israel’s borders. For this reason, they said, De Michelis hopes to persuade the European Community to help to Jordan without waiting for the United Nations to act.

Open support for this policy came from Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock, whose government is not a member of the European Community but has long been active in the Mideast.

“If Jordan were to be destabilized, Saddam Hussein would be on the border of Israel, in a position to widen his Arab support,” Mock told journalists at a luncheon. “This is sometimes underestimated in the West.”

He noted that the large number of jobless Jordanians, together with the influx of 200,000 impoverished refugees from Iraq and Kuwait, are potential recruits for revolution.

“We in the West should do anything so that Jordan is not destabilized,” Mock advised. “One or the other country might be irritated by King Hussein’s personality, but they are not seeing the long-range problem.”

Mock said he attempted to deliver his message in talking with Kuwaiti officials and will make the same case when he meets with Saudi leaders, but he was uncertain about their receptivity.

De Michelis said the financing of the European aid to nations strongly affected by the sanctions also will be on the table at next week’s gathering in Rome. He dismissed the claims of some members who have contributed troops, ships or aircraft to Persian Gulf forces and are seeking to offset their costs through a European Community assessment for aid. Asked if there will be a move toward burden-sharing, he replied: “The (European) Community believes military spending is a national decision.”

De Michelis deflected questions about coordination of European military contingents in the gulf, saying that the organization has no military functions, only economic and political.

“Our official position is that we have the possibility to arrive at a political solution (in the gulf),” he said. “We are trying to achieve the total political isolation of Iraq.”