Security Council Poised to Pass Use-of-Force Motion : Diplomacy: Baker meets with Soviet and Chinese foreign ministers.

With Secretary of State James A. Baker III lobbying his fellow foreign ministers until the last possible moment, the U.N. Security Council is poised to pass a historic measure today authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

Baker, who will preside over today’s meeting because the United States holds the Security Council presidency this month, met Wednesday night with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and Cuban Foreign Minister Isidoro O. Malmierca. Baker also held a midnight meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.

After his meeting with Baker, Shevardnadze reaffirmed Soviet support for the resolution authorizing the use of military force unless Iraq ends its occupation of Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991. But he said Moscow has not given up hope that the Persian Gulf crisis can be solved peacefully.

“The resolution permits the use of force, but it does not require it,” Shevardnadze said.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater agreed that the authorization to use force “does not demand action or demand any kind of declaration of war or anything like that.”

Shevardnadze said he is prepared for “serious and substantive” discussion with Baker on ways to implement the resolution authorizing military action.

China, which voted for 10 previous resolutions condemning Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, is expected to abstain this time, although some U.S. diplomats believed there was still a chance that Beijing might decide to support the measure.

There was little doubt at the United Nations that the resolution would pass.

Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Abdul Amir Anbari, spoke as if the vote were a forgone conclusion. He was asked if the resolution would change Iraq’s behavior.

“Only to the extent that it makes us realize that the United States really is not interested in solving the problem peacefully as much as it is trying to destroy the Iraqi military and industrial base,” he replied.

Cuba’s U.N. ambassador, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, also conceded the outcome.

“I think it is quite obvious tomorrow’s resolution will be adopted, and my impression is they will get the majority of members in the council,” he said. “We will not support it.”

Nevertheless, Baker held a private meeting in his Waldorf Astoria hotel suite with Malmierca, the first officially acknowledged high-level U.S.-Cuban meeting in more than 30 years.

Then-Secretary of State George P. Shultz conferred briefly and informally with Malmierca in December, 1988, after the signing of an Angolan peace agreement that required the withdrawal of Cuban troops from the African nation. There have also been several secret contacts over the years. But this was the first formal and publicly announced session since then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon met Fidel Castro in 1959.

In addition to the usual U.N. ambassadors, the higher-ranking foreign ministers from 13 nations will be present in the council’s chamber for today’s vote. Only the foreign ministers of Yemen and Ivory Coast are expected to be absent.

The Baghdad government has ignored the 10 previous U.N. resolutions, which have authorized enforcement of trade sanctions and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Three of the 15 council members had threatened to try to couple the latest Persian Gulf resolution with a vote on a measure designed to strengthen the safety of Palestinians in territories under Israel’s occupation. However, they did not raise the issue Wednesday.