Arabs Convene to Seek Remedy for Gulf Crisis : Mideast: Leaders urge Iraq to listen to reason. They debate how far they should go to restore peace.

Arab leaders in the Persian Gulf met Saturday for their first summit on the gulf crisis, opening discussions on last-chance prospects for coaxing Iraq out of Kuwait and resolving to fortify the defenses of the world’s richest oil region against future outside aggression.

Facing a shortening countdown to a war that would devastate the region, the sultans and emirs of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council urged Iraq to “listen to the voice of reason” and began quietly tackling the question of how far they are willing to go to win a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

The gulf countries--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates--are likely to remain firm in their determination to enforce U.N. resolutions demanding an unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

However, some gulf leaders may be prepared to quietly urge an international mediator to seek out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s bottom-line demands and determine if Kuwait is prepared to meet all or part of them once Iraqi troops withdraw, said a senior Arab official close to the talks.

“We believe the Iraqis are looking for a way out. We need to know exactly what (Hussein) wants, and then let’s put it in front of the Kuwaiti government,” said the official, who cautioned that the proposal is not an official council position but remains “just a scenario.”

“What is important now is to keep room for a peaceful resolution. I don’t believe in the question of last moment. The 15th of January doesn’t mean zero hour,” the official said. “All this talk of war is political pressure and psychological war. But maybe if there are guarantees, the Iraqi forces will be withdrawn.”

Another source close to the talks said some gulf leaders may be inclined to “press” Kuwait into negotiations over territorial disputes with Iraq if Iraq can first be persuaded to withdraw its forces under the threat of a military attack.

The key, in the view of officials who favor sending out peace feelers, is to encourage an international mediator, such as Algeria or a European country, to make the approach. They cited former British Prime Minister Edward Heath’s statements this week urging consideration of the need to resolve differences between Iraq and Kuwait.

“It’s very difficult for us to propose something like this,” admitted one gulf official, “but if a third party would strongly talk to Saddam and create a ground of confidence, that would be a big help.”

However, Saudi Arabia, the largest and most powerful of the Gulf Cooperation Council nations, will reportedly oppose any effort to communicate with Iraq that might be interpreted as a sign of weakness in the international alliance, summit sources said.

And Kuwait’s exiled minister of state for foreign affairs, Nasser Mohammed al Ahmed, reiterated in a statement Saturday that no settlement would be acceptable to Kuwait unless it includes a full and unconditional pullout of Iraqi troops and restoration in Kuwait of the ruling Sabah family.

“The question is: How can we accept talks with Iraqis while (Iraq’s) troops are still in Kuwait? This will be the debate,” one official said.

Analysts in the region expressed doubt that council leaders have any ability to move forward toward a peaceful resolution of the crisis without U.S. participation, and most predicted that the current summit, the 11th since the Gulf Cooperation Council was formed, will produce few tangible results.

“The region is on the brink of a major crisis in just a few weeks. Who knows what will be the state (of affairs)?” one Arab analyst said. “(Council leaders) need to get together, to restate their views, to discuss, even if there is no substance. In a period of mourning, you must mourn together.”

High on the summit agenda will be proposals to substantially augment the region’s military defenses to prevent another onslaught like the Iraqi march through Kuwait that had thousands of Iraqi troops controlling the capital and threatening neighboring Saudi Arabia within only a few hours.

“The current crisis, with all its gravity and intensity, makes it imperative upon us to review and reassess some aspects of our gulf march. Things cannot be allowed to proceed as they were before the events of Aug. 2,” said Sheik Khalifa ibn Hamad al Thani, emir and prime minister of Qatar and incoming president of the council, in the summit’s opening address.

“More than ever before, we need to strengthen the ties of our integration and lay practical bases for more comprehensive relations among our countries, whose peoples have no differences,” he said. “We also need to have a fresh look at the way we act. We need to establish a more effective security system that would enable the GCC to face the challenges in the aftermath of the crisis (and) shield our region against the recurrence of aggression on it.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd said the crisis will provide impetus for gulf nations to “move with firm steps toward the future, capable of confronting all circumstances and dealing with them from a position of strength.”

However, there are likely to be significant divisions among the gulf nations on the issue of how to guarantee the security of the region.

Some, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and perhaps Bahrain, are said to favor leaning on the United States and other Western nations in the future, perhaps allowing permanent stationing of some foreign troops in Kuwait and providing access agreements and pre-positioning of combat equipment in other gulf states.

Others, such as Oman and Qatar, are thought to oppose any extended foreign troop presence in the region or reliance on the West for help, according to diplomats based in the gulf. Instead, they are said to favor expanding the Gulf Cooperation Council’s own 10,000-member peninsula shield force, perhaps largely with contracted Egyptian soldiers, as a permanent, Arab-based defense.

“Over the short run, they cannot adequately defend themselves, even with maximum cooperation among themselves, against the two major predators--Iraq and Iran. Over time, as they develop a more technologically sophisticated defense system, they might have a credible first line of defense until the allies come to rescue them,” said a Western diplomat based in the region.

Purchase of an expanded, high-tech air defense system for the entire region may be another option the gulf countries could consider, but it is unlikely that the current summit will produce any final decision, summit sources said. Instead, the question is likely to be referred to a committee of ministers for discussion after resolution of the present crisis, they said.

“Obviously, they should be thinking about these things; they should be making big plans,” one diplomat said. “But I just think there’s a kind of mental block here about doing serious planning until the situation is resolved.”