Iraq, Sensing U.N. Hesitancy, Assails Buildup

Moving to exploit signs of military hesitancy among the U.N. Security Council powers, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz on Saturday condemned the planned new buildup of American forces in the Persian Gulf.

“This (U.S.) announcement blasts the false justifications made by the United States and the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt when American troops started to deploy in the region,” the official Iraqi News Agency quoted Aziz as saying.

President Bush announced last week that more than 200,000 U.S. troops will be dispatched to Saudi Arabia to join the 238,000 already there. The new deployment would make offensive operations against Iraq possible, military experts say.

Soviet, French and Chinese officials have sided with the United States and Britain--the other permanent Security Council members--on a U.S. call for a resolution giving advance approval for possible military action to drive Iraqi troops from Kuwait. But some have called for more time for a U.N.-imposed trade embargo to force a peaceful withdrawal.

Aziz’s comments appeared to be directed at Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, who arrives in Baghdad today, the first high-level official of the Security Council powers to visit Iraq since the Aug. 2 invasion.

Qian met Saturday with Jordanian leaders in Amman after talks in Cairo last week with Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“If the question (of the use of force) is to be put forward, it needs detailed discussion,” the Chinese envoy told reporters in Amman after his talks with Mubarak.

“Such a matter cannot be easily put to a vote,” he said of the proposed U.N. resolution.

Addressing such concerns, Aziz told the Iraqi News Agency:

“Those countries which are unwilling to contribute to the American aggressive plan are called upon to reconsider their position and withdraw their troops from the region.”

The United States, Britain, France and Egypt all have troops deployed in Saudi Arabia, and the Soviets have several warships in the area of the Arabian Sea, although they are not considered part of the Western deployment. No Chinese forces have joined the American-led buildup.

While Britain has not wavered from the U.S. strategy of applying an increased military threat to the Iraqi troops in occupied Kuwait, France has appeared eager to give equal emphasis to peace efforts.

A reporter for the Jordan Times on Saturday quoted Daniel Bernard, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, when asked whether Paris would veto the U.N. resolution authorizing military force, as replying: “I have not said that. What I am saying is that (French President Francois Mitterrand) was clear in his statement in Cairo last week that sanctions have to be given time to work. . . . The time is not ripe.”

Baker was in Paris on Saturday, at the end of a seven-nation tour, to discuss the gulf crisis with Mitterrand. But Baker did not indicate France’s stand on committing troops to any future offensive against Iraq.

In his statement to the news agency, Aziz complained: “The American secretary of state did not trouble himself to visit the area in search of a peaceful and just settlement to the Palestinian problem despite the passing of a large number of Security Council resolutions (on the issue).”

“It is only when it concerns oil and . . . colonialist interests that American officials work day and night and travel from one capital to the other.”

The Iraqis’ rhetorical strategy has been to submerge their invasion of Kuwait beneath a welter of longstanding Middle East problems and avoid any commitment on the U.N. demand for an unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. “Forget Kuwait ever existed,” Information Minister Latif Jasim advised foreign journalists in Baghdad earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Baghdad regime continues to host a series of foreign dignitaries seeking freedom for hostages held by Iraq as insurance against attack. Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited Baghdad last week and returned Friday to Germany with 174 Westerners, including three Americans, aboard a Lufthansa plane.

Succeeding him in the Iraqi capital Saturday were former Prime Ministers Anker Joergensen of Denmark and David Lange of New Zealand, and former Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark of the United States.