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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210389
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT                                LENGTH: Medium

ARAB NATIONS AVOID PEACE BID

Bedeviled by lack of details about the current Soviet efforts to arrange an end to the Persian Gulf War before it turns to an expected brutal ground phase, most Arab nations Wednesday cautiously stuck to previous positions and waited for other countries, namely the United States and Iraq, to make the final decisions.

Some Arab nations were clearly suspicious of the Soviet motives in trying to end the war, and they raised questions about the kind of postwar Middle East the Soviets have in mind.

Officials in Egypt, the Arab world's largest nation, which has nearly 40,000 troops in the American-led coalition against Iraq, said they could make no real comment on the initiative because they had not received the text of the proposal.

Privately, Egyptian officials said they had little expectation that a settlement could be reached in time to head off a ground offensive by the allied coalition. One said, "I don't think the Americans will stop short of a total Iraqi surrender, and I doubt that [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein will do that."

There was no comment from Syria, which besides Egypt is the only other non-gulf Arab state to send a sizable number of troops to fight with the coalition. But there were no signs that President Hafez Assad, a longtime and bitter opponent of Saddam's efforts to dominate the region, opposes a ground war that would depose his enemy.

The talk about the Moscow plan has caused a great deal of nervous concern among several gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, which sees in the Soviet action the prospect of a postwar Middle East dominated by a powerful Soviet-Iraqi-Iranian axis opposed to Saudi interests.

In a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, King Fahd reiterated demands for an immediate and unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and hinted that Saddam himself must be removed if there is to be permanent peace.

by CNB