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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 17, 1991                   TAG: 9102170093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT                                LENGTH: Medium

IRAQ'S ARAB FOES MAKE SECURITY PACT

Egyptian and Syrian troops will be stationed in Kuwait and other areas of the Persian Gulf as part of a postwar regional peace force in exchange for billions of dollars in aid from the oil-rich Arab nations, diplomatic sources said Saturday.

The arrangement was reached during a weekend meeting of the foreign ministers of most Arab nations supporting the coalition in the war against Iraq: Egypt and Syria, and the members of the so-called Gulf Cooperation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

Another member of the anti-Iraq coalition, Morocco, did not attend out of concern for the overwhelming pro-Iraqi sentiment of its people.

According to one gulf state diplomat, who asked not to be identified, Syrian and Egyptian troops will stay in the region to ensure that Iraq - or any other nation - does not try to "take advantage of the postwar confusion to gain new territory or establish dominance in the region."

"We want to ensure that the nations in the region provide our own security and that order and stability are established without the United States and other Western nations," the diplomat said.

In fact, he added, "the agreement will allow the Western forces to be withdrawn in the shortest time possible."

In exchange, Syria and Egypt, neither of which has major oil industries, will receive massive aid from the the big oil producers.

"If we are going to have full cooperation and military security, the wealthy nations are going to have to pay those other nations who provide the security," another diplomat said.

Diplomats said the foreign ministers framed the outline of a regional economic development fund totaling about $15 billion to "reconstruct the economies of the area and to pay for security," as one official put it.

No figures for Syria and Egypt were known, but an Egyptian official said a large share of the development fund would go to his country and Syria - "several billions of dollars," in his words.

The ministers issued a formal statement Saturday that dealt with the agreement only in general terms, but they said that another conference would be held March 5 in Damascus, Syria, to work out the details.

by CNB