Top Iraqi Official, Gorbachev to Meet on Ending Conflict : Diplomacy: Soviet envoy sees ‘glimmers of hope’ after a visit to Baghdad. The Security Council votes to hold a closed debate today on the war.

In what the Soviet Union called an “encouraging sign,” Iraq will send its foreign minister to Moscow this weekend for talks with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on ending the war in the Persian Gulf, Kremlin officials announced Wednesday.

Although careful in his optimism, special Soviet envoy Yevgeny M. Primakov said on his return from Iraq that he sees “glimmers of hope” for an end to the Gulf conflict after meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

“There are glimmers of hope for a resolution of the problem,” Primakov said on his arrival here. “There is reason to be more optimistic. . . .

“It is too early to speak about a fundamental change in (Hussein’s) position. But there is a glimmer, a ray of light in these developments, that offers hope to find a way out of this very, very difficult situation.”

In other developments:

* Germany’s foreign minister announced Wednesday that Syria is ready to recognize Israel’s right to exist as part of a postwar Middle East settlement. But Syrian and Israeli leaders quickly issued statements suggesting that there has been no change.

* The U.N. Security Council, in a rare move, voted to debate the Persian Gulf crisis in a formal meeting today that will be closed to the press and the public. The vote came in the council’s first formal meeting on the Gulf since Nov. 29, the day the council authorized war to drive Iraq from Kuwait.

Without specifics, Soviet envoy Primakov told correspondents that there were new elements in his Tuesday evening discussion with Hussein that were worth exploring, and he stressed the importance of opening a dialogue aimed at ending the war.

“The process makes us hopeful because this process has now begun,” he said, “and of course, you understand, it could not begin without any hope for its continuation.”

Tarik Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister, is due in Moscow on Sunday and, after preliminary discussions with Primakov and with Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh, is scheduled to meet Gorbachev on Monday.

“The character of the discussions in Baghdad have given us cause for hope,” said Vitaly N. Ignatenko, the president’s press secretary, describing Aziz’s trip as “a continuation of Soviet-Iraq contacts” begun by Primakov.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said there was no concern about talks between the Soviet Union and Iraq.

“We think it’s good that they continue to talk. Anything that results in getting Iraq out of Kuwait is good news,” he said.

Hussein had told Primakov, who had brought him a message from Gorbachev, that Iraq was willing to cooperate with the Soviet Union in seeking an end to the Gulf War, according to Baghdad Radio, but said the United States and its allies must halt their bombing campaign against his country.

The Soviet Union has been deeply involved in advancing a recent initiative by non-Arab Iran--Iraq’s enemy in the eight-year war that ended in 1988--which calls for Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait and the departure of foreign troops from the Persian Gulf.

Moscow has also promoted the proposal for a Middle East peace conference that would deal in addition with the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian problem and the Lebanese civil war and thus permit Iraq to claim that it had helped move these other issues toward a resolution.

Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, arrived in Moscow on Wednesday evening for what was described as “a short working visit.” He is scheduled to see Gorbachev today in preparation for the Aziz visit.

In proposing to send an envoy to Baghdad, Gorbachev had warned Saturday that the war could exceed the mandate of the Security Council, and in calling for peace he emphasized the need for a “solid and equitable security system in the region” that would include an Arab-Israeli settlement. The statement nonetheless blamed Iraq for the war and demanded its withdrawal from Kuwait.

Primakov, an Arabic-speaking specialist on the Middle East as well as Gorbachev’s principal foreign policy adviser, had no new proposals when he went to Baghdad, Soviet officials said, but he was prepared, in the words of one, “to elaborate and illuminate our thinking . . . and help Hussein with his own.”

Primakov emphasized, as did Ignatenko, that the Soviet Union was not retreating in its support of the Security Council resolutions demanding Iraq’s unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait and the restoration of its full sovereignty and independence.

The war has “already caused many human casualties and threatens to lead to many more, to an ecological catastrophe and to political events destabilizing the whole world,” Primakov said, reiterating the Soviet Union’s mounting concerns over the conflict.

“We are against the war, and we are doing everything that can bring it to an end.”

The statement that Syria will eventually recognize Israel’s right to exist was made by German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who spoke in Damascus after meeting for more than two hours with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh.

According to Genscher, Syria agreed that if Palestinians are given the right of self-determination, that would mean “Israel’s right to exist is recognized and secured,” the Associated Press reported.

The Syrian government, however, stopped short of confirming Genscher’s interpretation of the meeting.

Without specifically mentioning Israel, Syrian President Hafez Assad issued a statement a short time after Genscher’s remarks saying that Syria remained committed to a 1973 U.N. Security Council resolution.

Assad said Syria seeks “a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on the U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 338 that provides for the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East and for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, and securing the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.”

Avi Pazner, a senior adviser to the Israeli government, was quoted by AP as saying: “I do not think we see any change in the substance of their position.”

Syria has been one of Israel’s main foes since Israeli independence in 1948 and is among the majority of Arab countries that do not recognize Israel.

Syria and Israel have fought wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and clashed in Lebanon in 1982.

Genscher said the Syrians also told him that the territorial integrity of Iraq must be guaranteed after the Persian Gulf War. Syria is a member of the multinational coalition trying to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

Genscher said the Syrians held a constructive view on the future Middle East peace order, the AP reported. He said Syria wants to play a major role in the process, and also expected Germany to make a contribution.

There has been wide speculation that Syria would extract some sort of guarantees for participation in the coalition against Iraq. It has long sought return of the Golan Heights, territory seized by Israel in 1967.

In New York, the Security Council vote to ban the public and media from the Persian Gulf session came in response to a motion by the British. The vote was 9 to 2 in favor of the closed meeting, with four nations abstaining.

The United States and Great Britain had argued for a closed session so television pictures of the council’s deliberations could not be used for propaganda purposes and arguments would not be misinterpreted by Saddam Hussein.

France and the Soviet Union voted for the session to be closed, the first time a formal meeting of the council was to be held in private since 1975.

During a long procedural debate that provided a forecast of the closed-door deliberations, Soviet Ambassador Yuliy M. Vorontsov reaffirmed his nation’s determination that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, previewing the Bush Administration’s position, said the United States was not interested in dismembering Iraq but was determined that Saddam Hussein withdraw his troops from Kuwait.

Times staff writer John Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this article.