
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250220
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. AIDS ALLIES IN GULF

The United States has launched military exercises with the United Arab Emirates and pledged to stand by its friends in the Persian Gulf as Iraq massed thousands of troops on the Kuwaiti border to try to pressure the region's oil states to cut production, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The small-scale exercises, begun Monday, involve refueling the the United Arab Emirates' Mirage fighter planes using two U.S. tankers and one support plane, officials said. Some of the six U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf are being used in support, they said.

Such maneuvers are conducted to assure preparedness for an actual operation or to symbolically demonstrate cooperation and friendship. Iraq has condemned both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for overproduction of oil, and Tuesday Baghdad accused Kuwait of conspiring to harm its economy.

U.S. officials confirmed Iraq's buildup of 15,000 to 30,000 troops on its border with Kuwait.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak traveled to Iraq Tuesday, and U.S. diplomats here and in the Mideast have spoken with Arab counterparts to try to defuse the crisis.

"We're concerned about the troop buildup by Iraq," said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, "and we ask that all parties strive to avoid violence."

At the State Department, spokesman Margaret Tutwiler reiterated the U.S. stance that "we remain determined to defend the principle of freedom of navigation and to ensure the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz."

"We also remain strongly committed to supporting the individual and collective self-defense of our friends in the gulf with whom we have deep and longstanding ties," she said, identifying Kuwait as one such friend.

The statement, another official said, was intended to show that the United States will "stand by our friends" without committing it to any specific course of action.

U.S. relations with Iraq are both "complicated" and at times "difficult," according to the State Department.

Even though they take the troop buildup seriously, some U.S. officials voiced doubt that Iraq would attack Kuwait.

Iraq, a nation of 17 million people, has a troop strength of 1 million; Kuwait, which has 1.8 million residents, has an army of about 20,000.

Iraq is saddled with large debts as a result of its war with Iran, plus the need to restructure its economy while maintaining a big military establishment.

It counted on rising oil revenues from price increases that have not occurred, and has condemned both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for producing beyond quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In Geneva Tuesday, Iraq's oil minister demanded that OPEC choke supplies until petroleum prices soar to $25 a barrel from the current price of just under $17. Kuwait and other gulf oil states, including Saudi Arabia, favor a more moderate rise.

The government analyst said that a likely outcome would be an OPEC agreement that would see prices climb to about $20 a barrel, plus a separate money settlement for Iraq worked out among wealthy Arab states.

by CNB