Hussein Bridles at Rumors That Pullout Is Near

In a sharp indication that his policy toward occupied Kuwait will be no softer in the new year than it was in the old, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein knocked down speculation Saturday that he might pull his troops out of Kuwait before a Jan. 15 U.N. deadline for withdrawal.

The government issued his hard-line statement after a morning meeting between Hussein and the Revolutionary Command Council, his ruling inner circle. The communique characterized reports of a January pullout as “distortions and fabrications circulated by certain mercenary newspapers and vicious circles outside Iraq.”

Rumors have circulated in Baghdad for several weeks that Hussein might, in the name of peace, organize mass demonstrations to clamor for a retreat from Kuwait.

In addition, some radio reports in Europe have lately cited unidentified Egyptian diplomatic sources as saying that Iraq is considering a proposal by Washington that Iraq pull out of Kuwait in exchange for assurances that no attack against this country is undertaken by multinational forces now deployed in the Persian Gulf.

“That the Iraqi leadership would, before the enemy’s evil date, withdraw from the province of Kuwait or that it would organize a demonstration to urge the leadership to give up Kuwait and keep the danger away is a mere ill thought found only in the minds of evil planners and their dubious circles,” the communique said.

“All in Iraq believe that Kuwait is the 19th province,” the council declared.

The statement repeated Iraq’s insistence that any peace talks deal not only with Kuwait, but also with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We believe that peace can be realized only through dialogue based on equality and not through launching threats and massing forces,” the statement concluded.

Plans for talks between the United States and Iraq broke down over a dispute about scheduling.

From Iraq’s point of view, any date for negotiations that takes account of the Jan. 15 deadline is unacceptable. Baghdad called for a Jan. 12 meeting between Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Hussein, but Washington objected to a date that close to the deadline, maintaining that it might mask a ruse to evade the U.N. ultimatum altogether.

On Saturday, Iraqi officials said that no meaningful international contact is at present taking place on the issue. “If we want to have a meaningful dialogue, we should forget about Jan. 15 and just proceed,” remarked government spokesman Naji Hadithi.

He rejected President Bush’s oft-repeated statement that any U.S.-Iraqi talks are meant only as a way to stress to the Iraqi authorities that the Jan. 15 deadline is a serious one. “To hear about the U.N., we don’t need Bush,” Hadithi said.

It was not clear to foreign observers here just why the government was so eager to dismiss rumors that it termed baseless. There are plenty of rumors running around Baghdad, including one predicting that the civilian airport will close Jan. 10 for conversion into a military base.

With the U.N. deadline less than three weeks off, diplomatic possibilities are vague. France has indicated it might put forward its own peace initiative after Jan. 3 if Baghdad and Washington are still at odds over their own talks. Algeria’s president, Chadli Bendjedid, may make another swing through the Middle East to try to find common ground between Iraq and its Arab adversaries, especially Saudi Arabia.

Early in December, Bendjedid traveled to Iraq, other Arab capitals, Iran, Paris and Madrid to explore the chances for talks.

On Saturday, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Budimir Loncar visited Baghdad on a peace initiative requested by the Nonaligned Movement, which Yugoslavia currently leads, Cairo radio said. Loncar was expected to meet with Hussein and top Iraqi officials.

Although some diplomats here expect a breakthrough in the new year, the catch phrase among all of them now is wait and see. “I don’t think anyone knows which way things will go,” one Western diplomat said.