The Bush Letter: Aziz Refused to Touch the Sealed Envelope : Diplomacy: Strict protocol but no real negotiations marked talks in Geneva.

An 8-by-10-inch brown envelope containing President Bush’s letter to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein lay in the center of the table for the entire U.S.-Iraq meeting in Geneva. But Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz never touched it.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III decided to keep the sealed envelope within Aziz’s reach for the entire meeting in case the Iraqi official relented in his refusal to accept it, State Department officials said Thursday. The envelope even remained on the table during three recesses in the talks.

As they stood up to leave after more than six hours, Baker asked for the last time if Aziz would take the letter. Aziz said he would not.

Baker offered the letter to Aziz at the start of the meeting. The foreign minister declined to touch the original, although he studied a photocopy of the text before flatly rejecting it. He cited the same reason in the meeting that he later used at a press conference: Bush’s language, he said, was not sufficiently “polite” for communication between heads of state.

Two top officials who participated in the talks Wednesday provided some additional details of the crucial--but ultimately unsuccessful--meeting to reporters who accompanied Baker on the flight from Geneva to Riyadh, where the secretary of state conferred with King Fahd and other Saudi officials late Thursday.

As Baker and Aziz made clear in their back-to-back press conferences Wednesday night, there was no real negotiation during the Geneva talks because neither man budged from his original position on a single issue. The officials reinforced that conclusion Thursday.

Looking back at the talks, one official said of Aziz, “I do not think he had a great deal of latitude” to consider changes in Iraq’s hard-line position.

“He did an exceptionally good job with a very bad brief,” the official said.

The official gained the impression that Iraq hopes to use Kuwait as “a bargaining chip” to be traded for international pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. Although Baker said Wednesday he doubts that Iraq invaded Kuwait to assist the Palestinians, the Iraqis seemed to believe that such an outcome would make Hussein a leader of the Arab world.

The Bush Administration has ruled out such a deal, and Baker did not even try to explore Iraqi demands at Geneva.

The Geneva meetings were governed by a strict protocol that required each delegation to enter the hotel meeting room from different doors at precisely the same moment. During the recesses, once for lunch and twice for restroom visits, the delegations left simultaneously through the same doors.

One official said there was no toilet within easy reach of the meeting room, so the delegates had to return to their hotel rooms when the need arose.

Although Aziz and several members of his delegation speak fluent English, the talks were conducted in both English and Arabic, using consecutive translation, which required each statement to be recited in full in the other language.

A U.S. official said Aziz occasionally framed his comments in English but usually stuck to Arabic, apparently for reasons of national pride.

The technique provided an edge to Aziz, who could understand Baker’s remarks and could devote the time required for translation to considering his own reply, while Baker had to wait for the translation to frame his response.

Aziz suggested that the United States and Iraq might have been able to settle their differences if the Baker-Aziz talks had been held weeks or months earlier. The official aboard Baker’s plane rejected that idea.

“If we had this discussion on the 20th of December, the results would have been exactly the same,” the official said. “If we had the contacts in September or October . . . there still would not have been a basis of negotiations away from the U.N. resolution (demanding a total and unconditional Iraqi withdrawal).

“It has always been our view that if Iraq is going to comply with the U.N. resolution . . . they would do so only at the last minute,” he said.

The official said Baker presented a sober analysis of the military prowess of the U.S.-led force.

Although the Administration has said for months that Washington would not accept a “partial solution” and that the U.N. deadline of next Tuesday for Iraq to get out of Kuwait cannot be relaxed, the official said the anti-Iraq forces might show patience if Hussein “is actively moving out” by the deadline.

Baker announced Wednesday that Joseph C. Wilson IV, U.S. charge d’affaires in Baghdad, will leave the city Saturday with his four remaining aides. An official said Thursday that Wilson will bring the U.S. flag with him to prevent Iraqis from desecrating it. However, the official said the evacuation will not constitute a formal breach of diplomatic relations, so Washington will not select another nation to look after its interests in Baghdad.

The mood at the bargaining table was professional and serious for the most part, although, the official said, “There were a few attempts at humor.”

The word attempts seems to have been used advisedly. The few light moments related by officials would not qualify for a place in any compilation of diplomatic levity.

Early in the meeting, Aziz drew a cigar out of his pocket and asked if Baker would mind if he smoked it. Baker replied that he used to smoke cigars himself and might enjoy the second-hand smoke.

Later, Baker opened one of the bottles of mineral water that always seem to be placed on the table during diplomatic meetings. The secretary of state, a man of lifelong wealth, remarked that if he came back in an afterlife, he’d like to be a bottled water salesman because they seemed to do such a good business.