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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991                   TAG: 9102220371
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID HOFFMAN AND ANN DEVROY/ THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW PLAN DIFFICULT FOR U.S.

Many of the elements in the statement from Moscow run counter to the demands of the alliance over the past six months. But the statement, by accepting the central requirement for a withdrawal, may nonetheless make it very difficult for the coalition to launch a ground assault while both the Soviet Union and Iraq are appealing for a cease-fire and promising a pullout.

Poised for a massive ground assault, the U.S.-led coalition almost certainly will come under new pressure from around the world to wait for additional diplomacy, just the kind of stalling and drawn-out negotiations that led President Bush earlier this week to question details of the peace plan proposed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater seemed to reflect uncertainty about the ground offensive Thursday night when he said it is "not an issue" yet because it has not begun, and noted pointedly that the prosecution of the war from the air would continue.

Military planners believe that it will be difficult for coalition forces to remain in their current state of high readiness for a ground assault for long. At the same time, if the momentum of the military campaign is broken now, the alliance will find it hard to resume hostilities later should Iraq stall or make new demands or go back on its word.

Moreover, the Soviet imprimatur on the new proposal, which appeared to be an interim report, makes it difficult for the United States to dismiss altogether. The Soviets are one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and endorsed both the U.N. demands for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and the U.N. authorization for the use of force. While Bush found it relatively easy to dismiss Saddam's own peace plan last Friday as a "cruel hoax," brushing aside Thursday night's Soviet-Iraqi offering could not be so simple.

The Moscow statement Thursday night did not specify such critical details as when Iraq would promise to complete a pullout, the timetable for withdrawal or whether Iraqi forces could take their heavy armor and artillery with them. Gorbachev's spokesman said work was continuing in Moscow, and a U.N. Security Council meeting was expected today.

Fitzwater said that while Bush had told Gorbachev of his objections in their telephone conversation Thursday night, the allies still were discussing the plan among themselves. The plan was significant not only for the terms it outlined, but also for the issues it did not address, including Saddam's longstanding demand for resolution of other Middle East conflicts in tandem with the Persian Gulf crisis. Nor did it provide such critical details as when Iraq would complete its pullout.

Saddam's intransigence over the six months of the crisis brought increasingly stiff penalties, some of which the United States would like to continue after the war if Saddam remains Iraq's leader. But the Soviet Union, in effect, is offering him immunity from prosecution.

The 12 U.N. resolutions, in addition to insisting on Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, also impose other punishments, including international arms and economic embargoes and a requirement that Iraq compensate Kuwait for financial losses caused by the Aug. 2 invasion and occupation.

Some coalition leaders would like to prosecute Saddam for war crimes, and Bush, among others, has expressed a desire to see him removed from power. Many leaders in the coalition have wanted Saddam to be humiliated as the price for his aggression, and they have adamantly opposed relaxing any of these penalties or allowing Saddam to claim any rewards.

Under the plan announced in Moscow, however, none of the penalties would be brought to bear against Iraq. Although Saddam would be forced to leave Kuwait, and presumably bear some humiliation for the retreat, the Soviet statement calls for the U.N. economic sanctions to be lifted after two-thirds of Iraqi troops have left Kuwait, and all the U.N. resolutions to be repealed following total withdrawal.

The United States, in contrast, wants Iraq to leave Kuwait completely, without any concessions, and then to keep Baghdad effectively disarmed.