GULF WATCH: Day 132 : A Daily Briefing Paper on Developments in the Crisis.
Hostage Front: Three chartered jetliners carrying nearly 500 foreigners, including 14 Americans, left Iraq. About 500 people with American passports remain in Iraq and Kuwait, but many have dual citizenships and most are choosing to stay.
A U.S.-chartered flight today probably will be the last evacuation flight for Americans and will probably bring home the diplomats who kept the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait open.
Diplomatic Front: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir came away from a meeting with President Bush in Washington expressing confidence that no deal to resolve the Persian Gulf crisis will be at the expense of Israel. A State Department official said the two leaders also discussed prospects of reinvigorating the “peace process in the Middle East” after the problem in Kuwait is solved.
Military Front: An additional 10,000 U.S. troops have arrived in the Persian Gulf area since last week, bringing the total U.S. force there to 260,000. More than 220,000 troops of other allied nations are arrayed against Iraq, according to Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams.
Iraq, meanwhile, has placed 20,000 more troops in and around Kuwait in the past week, the Pentagon said.
The Iraqi Military Deployment:
Iraqi troops in or near Kuwait: 500,000+
Tanks deployed: 4,000+
Artillery pieces deployed: 2,700
Armored vehicles deployed: 2,500
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