Baker Hopeful of Last-Chance Trip to Baghdad

Secretary of State James A. Baker III expressed optimism Sunday that the United States and Iraq will settle their quarrel over dates in time for him to visit Baghdad for a last-chance attempt to avert war.

At the same time, however, Baker told reporters traveling with him to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting that he is convinced that the American public and the world community will blame Iraq instead of the United States if proposed high-level contacts collapse in the dispute over a difference of only nine days.

“We hope something can be arranged,” Baker said when asked if he believes that the impasse will be broken. Iraq proposed Jan. 12 for Baker’s visit to Baghdad, but President Bush said that any date after Jan. 3 is too close to the U.N. Security Council’s deadline for Iraq to end its occupation of Kuwait.

“We are offering any one of the following dates as a possible date for the meeting in Baghdad: Dec. 20, Dec. 21, Dec. 22, Dec. 23, Dec. 24, Dec. 25. . . ,” Baker said, slowly intoning every date between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3, including Christmas and New Year’s Day.

A senior State Department official later told reporters aboard Baker’s aircraft that the secretary of state would go to Iraq on Christmas Day if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein asked him to do so, although he would much rather be at home on the holiday.

Baker also refused to rule out a compromise date between Jan. 3 and Jan. 12.

“It’s customary and even traditional when you are talking about holding diplomatic discussions and meetings that the two sides should agree on when and where those meetings will be held,” he said.

When the U.N. Security Council voted Nov. 29 to authorize the use of force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait, the 15-nation council fixed a deadline more than six weeks into the future to give diplomats a last chance to settle the crisis.

Since the U.N. vote, however, nothing much has happened on the diplomatic front, and the most dramatic initiative--Bush’s proposal for Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz to come to Washington and Baker to visit Baghdad--is in danger of falling apart.

Asked if there will be any additional attempts to find a peaceful solution, Baker said only, “Stay tuned.”

However, he rejected suggestions that Congress, the U.S. public and allied nations might question the U.S. resolve to “go the extra mile” in search of peace if the Aziz and Baker meetings are aborted over a narrow point of protocol.

“We are being very forthcoming,” Baker said. “ . . . It does seem to me that people will understand that, so far at least, there is an effort on the part of the Iraqi government to manipulate the President’s good-faith offer of discussions.

“The international community has made it as clear as they can that they are serious about the authorization for the use of all necessary means (to force Iraq out of Kuwait),” he said. “There doesn’t seem to me, at least, to have been any walking away from that or any suggestions by any members of the international coalition than the (U.N.) resolution meant something other than specifically what it said.”

Baker said he plans to discuss the Persian Gulf crisis with the foreign ministers of the 15 other NATO countries during the alliance’s annual winter meeting today and Tuesday.

Unlike special NATO meetings earlier in the crisis, Baker said he will not make any new requests for the allies to increase their military or financial contributions to the anti-Iraq coalition, although he will remind the foreign ministers that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney recently asked NATO defense ministers to provide additional ships and aircraft to transport troops and materiel to the gulf.

Baker also said the NATO ministers will discuss accusations that the Soviet Union has tried to cheat on the recently signed Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty by undercounting the tanks, artillery and combat aircraft that are stationed in Europe. He said the meeting also will consider charges that Moscow has tried to evade the treaty by moving some tanks and other weapons into Soviet Asia, which is not covered by the agreement, although he said this action apparently is not a technical violation of the agreement.

On a related subject, Baker said the United States has warned the Soviets that if they use police repression to prevent “the emergence of rudimentary markets” in the country’s crumbling planned economy, it would reverse the warming trend in U.S.-Soviet relations. However, he said Washington has no objection to enforcement of “reasonable laws.”

Asked to elaborate, he said the United States objects to the use of police power to prevent farmers from holding their produce off the market in hopes of a better price because such behavior is driven by market factors even though it technically violates Soviet law. But he said it would be appropriate for Soviet police to crack down on hijacking and theft.

“We’ve made the determination that instability in the Soviet Union is not in our interest nor in the interest of the world,” he said. “We want to see the reform process continue. We take note of the degree to which it proceeded with a great deal more rapidity than anyone thought was possible. We take note that the central authorities in the Soviet Union meant it when they said they would not use force to prevent Central and Eastern Europe from reforming.”