Bush Opposes Sending Baker On to Baghdad

President Bush said Friday that Iraq’s acceptance of a meeting between Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz next week “is a useful step,” but he was firm in his opposition to sending Baker on to Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein.

Asked at a news conference whether he sees any reason for the secretary of state to meet with the Iraqi president, Bush replied: “No. We’ve exhausted that option.”

Bush’s aides made it clear they do not want to be boxed into the position of agreeing to a meeting with Hussein just days before the Jan. 15 deadline after which the use of force is authorized to remove Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

Bush also reiterated earlier assurances by others that if Iraq pulls its troops out of Kuwait by the deadline, it will not come under attack.

“It’s been made clear to Iraq . . . that if they totally comply” with U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding withdrawal from Kuwait, “they will not be attacked,” the President said.

Asked whether the planned meeting between Baker and Aziz in Geneva next Wednesday made him more optimistic that the Persian Gulf crisis could be resolved peacefully, Bush said: “I haven’t gotten pessimistic about it. But time is going on here. But I think you’d have to view this as a positive step, yes.”

Bush, who spoke to reporters as he was about to board a Marine Corps helicopter to begin a weekend visit to Camp David, Md., appeared particularly subdued in his comments, avoiding much of the harsh, accusatory language he had directed in the past at Hussein. Aides said his appearance reflected a more relaxed mood he has exhibited in recent days, rather than a conscious shift in rhetoric.

While at the presidential retreat near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, Bush will meet today with U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar “to compare notes with him,” the President said.

Perez de Cuellar said Thursday that he was prepared to visit Baghdad if that would help bring peace. However, White House officials said Friday they do not expect the secretary general to embark on such a trip.

The President will deliver a 6 1/2-minute speech to the nation, via radio, at 9 a.m. PST today, to “update the American people on the status of our diplomatic efforts to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and discuss the fear and suffering that Hussein has inflicted on the people of Kuwait,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Meanwhile, Fitzwater dropped his normal reluctance to comment on public opinion polls, citing an ABC News/Washington Post survey that he said indicated that 65% of Americans favor going to war if necessary to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait, with 82% supporting a U.S. military move within a month if the Jan. 15 deadline is not met.

In agreeing to the meeting between its foreign minister and Baker, Iraq was responding to a proposal Bush put forward on Thursday.

“I hope that Iraq’s acceptance of the meeting indicates a growing awareness of the seriousness of the situation,” Bush said.

“There can be no compromise or negotiating,” he added. “It is now for Saddam Hussein to respond to the international community’s plea for reason.”

Baker’s mission, Bush said, “is to convey to Iraq the gravity of the situation. Iraq knows what is necessary: the complete and unconditional and immediate withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from all of Kuwait and the restoration of the legitimate government of Kuwait.”

The decision to propose a meeting in Switzerland poses a potential pitfall that has made the White House nervous, one official acknowledged.

“You open yourself up to the possibility of Aziz saying, ‘Let’s go back to Baghdad,’ and you get jerked around,” the official said. Indeed, Iraq has made it known that it is interested in pressuring Baker to visit Baghdad after the Geneva meeting.

“We would not be able to accept the notion of Baker meeting with Hussein unless there is a clear commitment to accept the U.N. resolutions because otherwise there’s nothing to talk about,” the White House official said.

Besides, officials fear that a meeting late next week between Baker and Hussein would provide the Iraqi leader with an excuse for delaying a withdrawal by the deadline, because he could say there was insufficient time, after the meeting, to meet the demand.

So, said one official, Bush was prepared as he began the news conference to send an unambiguous message that he was not interested in resurrecting his original proposal, made on Nov. 30, that Baker visit Baghdad after an Aziz visit to Washington.

“He was going to slam-dunk that one, and he did with one word--’No,’ ” the official said.

It is the view of the White House that by Jan. 15, there will have been sufficient opportunities for Hussein to have received the U.S. message from authoritative sources. These include the Baker-Aziz meeting in Geneva; a letter to Hussein from Bush, written in both English and Arabic, that Baker will give to the foreign minister, and contacts between Iraqi officials and Joseph Wilson IV, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Baghdad.

Bush, meanwhile, said that Baker will reject any attempt during his meeting with Aziz to link a solution to the gulf crisis to the Palestinian issue. France on Friday proposed a peace plan calling for talks on Middle East issues after an Iraqi withdrawal.

The President also said he was “pleased” with a decision by the 12-member European Community’s council to meet with Aziz after the Geneva meeting--rather than dispatching Jacques Poos, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, to Baghdad immediately.

“I have no hang-ups on that. Many people have tried to talk sense to the Iraqis and make them understand what they’re facing,” the President said.

However, one White House official made it clear that the Administration has opposed one mission after another heading to Baghdad in the days before the Jan. 15 deadline, “running off to negotiate without anything to offer.”

The message from Hussein to previous visitors, said Fitzwater, “has always been the same: ‘No--no give.’ ”