Hussein Will Not Blink, Kuwaiti Official Says

Saddam Hussein will not withdraw his troops from Kuwait and will have to be forced out, Kuwait’s finance minister said Friday.

“A lot of my colleagues in government think yes, he’ll blink. And a lot of world leaders also think he’ll blink. But I personally . . . think he will not blink,” Sheik Ali al Khalifa al Sabah said.

Hussein is sorely misinformed and believes he can survive an all-out assault by the U.S.-led forces poised to attack after the expiration of the Jan. 15 U.N. deadline calling for him to withdraw, Ali said.

“He thinks there are divisions in the United States, that the coalition will develop a fracture,” the minister told reporters following a speech to a civic group here. “He thinks he can carry on this war for five or six months, which is again a miscalculation.”