French Seem Puzzled by U.S.-Soviet Peace Move : Diplomacy: The same proposals by Mitterrand were assailed by Washington, envoy says.

The new U.S.-Soviet peace proposal for the Persian Gulf “contains exactly the elements” of a plan that drew “harsh criticism” from the Bush Administration when French President Francois Mitterrand advanced it four months ago, French Ambassador Jacques Andreani said Wednesday.

Andreani, apparently puzzled by the U.S.-Soviet move, noted that both proposals called for efforts to promote Arab-Israeli peace if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made an unequivocal declaration of his intent to withdraw his military forces from occupied Kuwait.

Mitterrand’s proposal, outlined in a speech on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual debate last Sept. 24, was quickly rejected by Administration officials who emphasized there would be no negotiations until Iraq withdrew unconditionally from Kuwait.

Andreani, interviewed during a breakfast meeting with The Times Washington Bureau, also said that if Hussein survives the Gulf War, it would be a political mistake to try him for war crimes as some Bush Administration officials and members of Congress have proposed. Doing so, he said, would make Hussein a hero and martyr, further destabilizing the Middle East.

President Bush has said repeatedly there should be no linkage between Arab-Israeli peace efforts and demands that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait. But in a statement issued Tuesday night, the United States and Soviet Union pledged a joint effort to “promote Arab-Israeli peace” and said the war could end if Hussein made an “unequivocal commitment” to withdraw.

Andreani, a former ambassador to Egypt and to the Soviet Union, said the U.S.-Soviet statement seemed to create the very linkage that Bush had wanted to avoid.

“There is this linkage,” he said. “There is this idea that after all, the cease-fire is something you can talk about right now. . . . This was very good news to us. It shows that the best ideas find always a way through.”

However, he said, it would be “completely unrealistic” to think the U.S.-Soviet proposal could solve the Arab-Israeli problem when it ignores any role that could be played by Europe or by the U.N. Security Council.

“I don’t think you can solve it that way,” he said, adding that France expects to cooperate with the United States and Soviet Union “in the framework of the international community” in working for an Arab-Israeli peace accord.

The ambassador also found “a surprising contrast” between Bush’s comments about a “new world order” during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night and the U.S.-Soviet initiative signed by Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh.

“The world order is whatever order is designed and guaranteed by the United States, which is the only superpower in the world,” Andreani said. “Right? That’s what the President said in substance yesterday. One hour later, the extinct star, the dead superpower, the other one, is resuscitated by Mr. Baker. Then you have the United States and the Soviet Union taking in their hands together the fate of the Middle East. This is strange.”

Andreani said that Hussein may survive the Gulf War physically, but he is unlikely to survive it politically. While the French government has taken no position on whether he should be tried for war crimes, the ambassador said there is “no doubt” it would be politically unwise to do so.

He conceded that Hussein could emerge a hero anyway after having stood up to the United States and the 28 other nations participating in the international coalition.

If Hussein is simply defeated, he might “flee to an unnamed African country, for example, and be lost there and forgotten,” Andreani said.

“I think it’s much better than to have him under the flash lights and the cameras of the television of the whole world for days, making inflamed anti-West statements and giving the image of an Arab being tried by Westerners in the name of an international law decided by Westerners for Westerners,” he said. “That’s the idea that would be given. I think it’s wrong.”

Calls for a war crimes trial were renewed Wednesday by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who introduced legislation that would begin laying the legal foundation on which Hussein and other Iraqi leaders could be tried for crimes against civilians and prisoners of war.

“Reports out of Baghdad that a U.S. prisoner of war being used as a human shield has been killed, and the massive oil slick Iraq has loosed in the Persian Gulf are barbaric atrocities that must not go unpunished,” McConnell said. “These are only the latest crimes Hussein has committed reminding us of his total disregard for human life.”

Earlier, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney condemned Baghdad’s treatment of captured pilots and said their conduct constitutes “a war crime, and those people who carry out those kind of acts will be held accountable.”

In addition, the U.S. Army has been cataloguing evidence of war crimes by the Iraqis for possible prosecution under the international law of war.