Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080785
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Considering aid to Iraq while bombarding the country on the average of one mission a minute may seem odd. Admitting Moscow to the peace process in the Middle East is a major policy change.
Ever since Egypt and Syria, armed by Moscow, gave Israel a scare in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, U.S. policy has aimed at excluding the Soviets from influencing the outcome of negotiations.
The Soviets kept a hand in Syria, arming Hafez Assad's forces as well as his enemies, the Iraqis. But when it came to peacemaking, the United States managed on its own.
One reason was Israel's distrust of Moscow. Another was the conviction the Soviets were interested in promoting the views of radical Arabs.
As a result, when President Carter mediated between Egypt and Israel to help produce their 1979 peace treaty, he operated without consulting Moscow.
In the years since, the Soviets have taken a friendlier stand on Israel and put some distance between themselves and radical Arab governments.
Secretary of State James Baker, testifying Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Soviets had helped in the international campaign to liberate Kuwait from Iraq and "it is our intention to have the Soviets involved in the Middle East."
"The old policy was wrong, and we changed it," he said.
It is a historic turnabout, but only one of many emerging from the Persian Gulf War. For instance:
Syria, still on the State Department roster of nations that sponsor terrorism, is fighting alongside the United States against Iraq.
President Bush, having met with Syria's Assad in Geneva in November, telephoned him Wednesday night to talk about the progress of the war. And Baker has made two trips to Damascus to court the Syrian leader.
A Syrian-based group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, is the leading suspect in the bombing of a Pan American jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in which 70 people died.
But Syria no longer is being treated as an outcast.
Jordan, on the other hand, has abandoned its ties with the United States to line up with Iraq.
King Hussein, long courted and financed by the United States, delivered a blistering attack Wednesday on the allied war effort. It is directed, he said, "against all Arabs and all Muslims and not against Iraq alone."
Sympathy for the king's war-ravaged economy and his proximity to Iraq finally gave out. Bush said the Jordanians "made a mistake to align themselves so closely to [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein against the rest of the world." Late Thursday the administration said it was reviewing U.S. aid to Jordan, which runs about $102 million a year.
Iran, on the other hand, drew praise Thursday from Baker even though the United States is still routinely denounced in Tehran as the Great Satan and diplomatic relations have been suspended since the U.S. Embassy was sacked and its occupants taken hostage in 1979.
Baker called Iran's efforts to mediate the Gulf War "credible," and he said the administration was willing to hold talks with Iranian leaders - provided they renounced terrorism and arranged the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon.
The secretary also proposed a new post-war Middle East Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other measures to expand free trade and investment in the region.
With the world spinning so crazily, the administration's offer to help rebuild Iraq hardly seems odd at all - particularly since it's coupled with a not-so-subtle hint to the Iraqi military to depose Saddam.
The obvious inference: if the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people want Uncle Sam to help them rebuild, they should overthrow their president.
Who knows? If they do, the United States might find itself with Iraq, Iran and Syria as a trio of new friends in the Middle East.
by CNB