Jordan Helped Iraq During Gulf War, New Report Says

Two days before King Hussein of Jordan is to meet with President Clinton, a congressional report Wednesday accused his Middle Eastern country of providing intelligence and other assistance to neighboring Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.

Hussein plans to talk with Clinton on Friday about improving ties with the United States, the current round of Middle East peace talks and Iraq. The meeting will be the first between the two leaders.

Relations between the United States and Jordan chilled during the 1991 war, when Jordan publicly supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Relations since then generally have been cordial.

During the war, Jordan was accused of providing economic and military assistance to Iraq in violation of a U.N. embargo. But the George Bush Administration assured Congress that there was no hard evidence of such violations.

The assertion is disputed by the newly released report, prepared by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress. The report is based on newly declassified documents that The Times first described in detail last November.

The report says the Bush Administration misled Congress about Jordan’s help to Iraq by saying that shipments of U.S. military equipment to Jordan had been stopped when actually they continued during the war.

According to the report, U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that Jordan and Iraq cooperated in several ways during the war. The report says the Jordanians provided Iraq with allied and Israeli intelligence, sold Iraq military spare parts and provided access to U.S. technology. In addition, the report says, the two countries conducted joint military training exercises after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990.

The Bush Administration was apparently inclined to go easy on Jordan in hopes of restoring good relations in the future.

Attempts to reach Jordanian officials were unsuccessful Wednesday. A government representative told The Times last year that Jordan had provided no military items or intelligence to Iraq after the U.N. embargo was imposed Aug. 6, 1990.