Mubarak Urges U.S. to Delay Attack in Gulf

President Hosni Mubarak said today he has urged the United States to delay ordering military action in the Persian Gulf by up to three months to give Iraq more time to think about pulling out of Kuwait.

His appeal, reported in Cairo newspapers, came after the Soviet Union’s chief Middle East envoy called for delaying introduction of a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

Mubarak said he asked President Bush “to postpone the military option, which the United States favors under an international (U.N.) umbrella . . . and allow a chance of two or three months to try to achieve peace.”

The Egyptian leader was also quoted as saying, by newspaper editors who accompanied him on diplomatic missions to Libya and Syria, that the Soviet Union and China were not opposed to the use of force as a last resort to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

Bush has ordered at least 200,000 more troops to reinforce the 230,000 Americans already sent to the gulf in response to Iraq’s Aug. 2 seizure of Kuwait.

The extra troops, warships and hundreds of tanks are not expected to be in place before January.

Egypt has sent at least 20,000 troops to the multinational gulf force, more than any other Arab nation.

A prominent Egyptian military strategist close to Mubarak said: “I think by January all the pieces will fall into place . . . I think the military option will be ready by January.”

China and the Soviet Union say they favor an Arab solution to the crisis.

Both countries have backed U.N. resolutions demanding an unconditional Iraqi withdrawal but unlike the three other permanent members of the Security Council--the United States, Britain and France--they have not sent troops to the gulf.

Soviet envoy Alexander Belonogov emerged from talks with Mubarak today and told reporters: “Iraqi President Saddam Hussein must be convinced that the situation in the gulf is very dangerous and that the time element is not in his favor.”