Gorbachev Calls Bush With New Gulf Initiative

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev telephoned President Bush on Friday and dispatched his ambassador to the White House twice as the Soviets floated what Bush called an “innovative” last-minute peace initiative for the Persian Gulf.

Bush, his aides and Soviet officials in Moscow all refused to discuss details of Gorbachev’s proposals, but the initiative sent top national security aides into a hurried series of White House meetings to study the Soviet leader’s ideas.

At Gorbachev’s suggestion, Soviet Ambassador Alexander A. Bessmertnykh held two half-hour meetings with Bush to discuss the Soviet move, one at midmorning, the other midafternoon.

“All of us are trying to think if there’s something that we can do that will result in full compliance with the U.N. resolutions” ordering Iraq out of Kuwait, Bush said in a brief conversation with reporters in the Oval Office after the first meeting with the Soviet envoy.

Gorbachev, Bush said, called at about 8 a.m. Friday because he “had some ideas he wanted to discuss with me” about the Persian Gulf. The Soviet leader, he added, “has a lot of experts on that area in the government of the Soviet Union, and so you can assume that he was thinking innovatively.”

The two spoke for roughly 25 minutes, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

White House officials, however, cautioned against over-optimism. They noted that they still have seen no evidence of willingness on the part of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to meet the fundamental demand that he withdraw his forces from Kuwait by midnight Tuesday or risk war.

The Soviet proposals are “ideas that they want to pursue, and they will (do so) through their own channels,” Fitzwater said.

“I don’t think it changes the overall situation,” he added. “If these ideas or any other ideas are helpful, fine. In the larger context, the situation is about the same. We don’t want to unnecessarily get our hopes up.”

“The prospects of peace are unchanged,” said a senior Bush aide familiar with Gorbachev’s proposals. “The key does not lie with Moscow but with Saddam.”

The senior official said the main hope for a peaceful settlement of the crisis is the last-minute mediation effort by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who plans to meet with Hussein today in Baghdad.

Perez de Cuellar, the official said, may be able to make progress with Hussein by offering “assurances on his own that certain things are likely to happen,” such as the international conference on the Middle East proposed by Hussein.

“There is no plan that has our endorsement or anyone else’s,” the senior official said, but Perez de Cuellar will “offer his own thinking about what will follow.”

Some U.S. officials have speculated that Hussein might accept an assurance from Perez de Cuellar about a peace conference as proof that his invasion of Kuwait has accomplished something, giving him cover to withdraw his forces if, in fact, he is seeking a way out. That approach also would preserve the U.S. position of making no direct concessions in return for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.

Bush and his aides insisted that nothing in Gorbachev’s suggestions would undermine the U.S. position. “We remain in sync on this,” Bush said, adding that Gorbachev did not suggest any extension of Tuesday’s deadline for withdrawal.

“I’m confident we’re playing from the same sheet of music,” the senior official said. “There’s an understanding between us and the Soviets that there will be no linkage. . . . I’m confident they will not do anything different from the consensus of the coalition.”

Bush said he and Gorbachev also discussed Soviet “internal problems,” including the use of Soviet troops to seize buildings in the Lithuanian republic. But his aides played down U.S. concerns about the Baltic situation and concentrated their talks on the gulf plan.

Since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, the Soviets have made several attempts to mediate an end to the standoff. Until the invasion, Moscow was Iraq’s largest supplier of military equipment and one of Hussein’s key allies. Because of the longstanding ties between the two countries, the Soviets are assumed to have a better chance of influencing Hussein than most other nations.

Bush also spoke during the day with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu as the White House tried to rebut criticism that U.S. allies have contributed too little financially to the anti-Iraq effort.

U.S. allies have pledged enough money to cover 80% of the gulf deployment costs incurred so far, Fitzwater said. The White House estimated the costs at $10 billion and said allied nations already have contributed $6 billion in cash and in-kind contributions.

Fitzwater’s estimate, however, only covered bills received as of Dec. 31. U.S. officials estimate the costs of Operation Desert Shield could exceed $30 billion this year, even if no war begins, and will be substantially higher if fighting takes place.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, has sent a letter to members of Congress saying his country spent $3 billion in support of U.S. troops through the end of December and that “the outlay will be higher in the coming quarter because of the additional troops and stepped-up troop activities.”

The Saudis have pledged to pay 40% to 50% of the military expenses of the multinational force, according to Saudi and U.S. officials.

Separately, the Administration announced that Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger will travel to Israel this weekend. Eagleburger, the second-ranking official in the department, would be the top agency official to visit Israel since Bush took office.

“Throughout the crisis in the gulf, we’ve consulted frequently with the Israeli government,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in announcing the visit. Officials said Eagleburger will urge Israel to maintain its low-profile policy in the crisis and not to take any preemptive move as a result of Iraqi threats.

Dennis Ross, the head of the State Department’s policy planning staff and the top Middle East adviser to Secretary of State James A. Baker III, had been planning a visit to Israel but has been accompanying Baker on his current trip to Europe and the Middle East.