Gorbachev to Send Envoy to Baghdad : Diplomacy: The Soviet president, warning that the allies may exceed U.N. mandate, will try to halt ‘largest war in decades.’

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, warning that allied military actions in the Persian Gulf War threaten to destroy Iraq and thereby “exceed the mandate” set by the United Nations, announced Saturday that he will immediately send an envoy to Baghdad to try to end what he called the “largest war in recent decades.”

Gorbachev reiterated his commitment to the U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at liberating Kuwait and expressed concern about the way the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf War has caused death and damage in Iraq.

“The logic of the military operations, the character of the military actions, threatens to exceed the mandate,” Gorbachev said in a statement released by the official news agency Tass. “The number of casualties, including among the civilian population, is growing. Combat operations have already inflicted enormous material damage.”

Although British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd sought to allay such concern, saying that the allies do not plan to expand their war aims to include the destruction of Iraq or the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, both Iran and Pakistan, key nations bordering the Gulf region, tried to increase diplomatic pressure to end the war.

To that end, there were these developments:

* Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani met with Sadoun Hammadi, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, who carried a message from President Hussein.

* Immediately after delivering the message, Hammadi traveled to Amman, Jordan, and met with King Hussein. Hammadi scheduled a news conference today in Amman to discuss the nature of his mission.

* Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his ousted predecessor, Benazir Bhutto, toured the Middle East in search of a formula for peace. Aides said both asked to meet with President Hussein in Baghdad.

Gorbachev’s pledge to dispatch a representative to Baghdad marked the first time a special envoy would be sent from Moscow since the war started. Tass did not identify the Gorbachev emissary, but all Moscow contacts with President Hussein to date have been handled by Yevgeny M. Primakov, a confidant of the Soviet president and a longtime personal acquaintance of the Iraqi leader.

The Soviet Union has maintained contact with Iraq since it invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2. It has tried repeatedly to persuade President Hussein to end the conflict by withdrawing. While other countries that support the U.N. resolution have contributed troops to the allied efforts to oust Iraq from Kuwait, the Soviet Union has chosen instead to use political means to push for a settlement.

Other nations that support the Security Council resolution have closed their embassies in Baghdad, but the Soviet Union has kept its open. Its embassy staff still numbers 13, down from more than 100 before the war.

“The developments in the Gulf zone are taking an ever more alarming and dramatic turn,” Gorbachev said in his strongest statement to date on the war. “Whole countries--first Kuwait, now Iraq and next perhaps other countries--are facing the threat of catastrophic destruction. . . .

“By taking (diplomatic) . . . steps,” he said, “we want not only to help overcome the state of war as soon as possible, but also to begin preparing a solid and equitable security system in . . . (the Gulf) region.”

The Soviet leader cautioned both sides against using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, saying: “Attempts are being made by both sides to get people used to the idea that the use of mass destruction weapons is possible and permissible. If this happened, the whole of world politics, the world community in general, would be shaken to its foundation.”

He appealed publicly to Saddam Hussein “to weigh again what is at stake for his country and to demonstrate realism, which would make it possible to head on the way toward a dependable, just peace settlement.”

British Foreign Secretary Hurd, speaking at a news conference in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said there was total agreement between his country and Egypt “that we are not seeking to alter or expand the war aims. . . .”

“We are not seeking to alter the boundaries of Iraq. . . ,” Hurd declared. “We are not seeking to dictate who should be the government of Iraq. That is for Iraqis to decide.”

Hurd later arrived in Riyadh, after having met with Kuwaiti leaders in Taif, where he received assurances of their help in paying for the Gulf War. He also was to discuss Saudi Arabia’s financial contributions to the effort.

Hurd is on a brief tour of the region to discuss postwar security arrangements with Arab members of the anti-Iraqi alliance. The public emphasis both he and the Egyptians placed on allied war aims seemed to reflect their concern about accusations that the U.S.-led coalition was out to “destroy” Iraq.

In addition to such concern expressed by Gorbachev, a direct accusation to that effect came last week from Jordan’s King Hussein, who said the allies are waging war “against all Arabs.”

British officials said they expect the war to end “fairly soon.”

They said Hurd’s talks with Mubarak focused on the future order of the Arab world and its “post-crisis (security) arrangements.” Hurd and Mubarak, they said, have “a complete identity of views”--but they provided no details.

Postwar security arrangements might include stationing an Arab peacekeeping force in Kuwait, composed mostly of Egyptian and Syrian troops. Western forces are expected to contribute by maintaining a sizable naval presence in or near the Persian Gulf and possibly by placing heavy equipment in Saudi Arabia for quick deployment if necessary.

Hurd said British ground forces would be withdrawn soon after the liberation of Kuwait.

“I cannot see a long-term presence of British troops in Kuwait,” Hurd said, “or anywhere else in the area.”

In Tehran, there was no disclosure of the contents of Hammadi’s message from President Hussein to President Rafsanjani. The message came in response to Rafsanjani’s offer last week of what he called an “idea”--not a full-fledged peace plan. When he sent the “idea” to President Hussein, Rafsanjani also proposed to personally mediate a solution between Baghdad and Washington.

The response Hammadi brought is under study by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the Iranian news agency IRNA said. The agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati as saying: “The spirit of the efforts and messages of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on seriousness in ending this devastating war peacefully.”

Baghdad Radio, in a broadcast monitored in Cyprus, said that President Hussein has given Rafsanjani’s idea “careful study.”

The Mideast tour by Pakistani leader Sharif and Bhutto, his deposed predecessor, reflected both international and domestic pressures. Both have called for an Iraqi withdrawal; both support the deployment of 10,000 Pakistani troops in Saudi Arabia. But their political fortunes at home rest on rising popular sentiment for Iraq.

Shogren reported from Moscow and Williams from Amman. Times staff writers Michael Ross in Cairo and Kenneth Freed in Nicosia, Cyprus, also contributed to this story.