Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102240060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Before the ground offensive against Iraq was officially declared started, Soviet spokesman Vitaly Ignatenko spoke somberly at a news briefing that took note of the failed Soviet efforts to broker a settlement and took pains to demonstrate that Moscow was not at odds with the American-led force. He said that if the offensive took place, Gorbachev was ready to share responsibility with Bush.
He declared, too, that the Persian Gulf crisis in no way weakened the new relations Gorbachev had forged with Washington.
Ignatenko said Gorbachev had made a round of telephone calls to Bush and the leaders of Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Egypt and had tried to impress on them how close the positions of Iraq and the United States had come through the Soviet effort, and to argue for a chance to integrate the two plans at the U.N. Security Council.
But the Western leaders responded almost unanimously, their spokesmen said, that it was too late for changes; that Iraq had failed to meet the deadline.
Ignatenko made it clear that Moscow was particularly disappointed with Iraq.
"Today Iraq has lost the chance to make use of this good will, and it's not only in these days, but over months that this opportunity was available to Iraq," he said. "If I'm talking about some hope, that is the hope that even under these circumstances, when all possibilities have been exhausted, the regime in Iraq will have the guts, so to say, to withdraw its forces.
"But there will have to be certain actions for this, and we don't see these actions. We see other things - we see from high above burning oil facilities, the continued destruction of the ecosystem. As far as hopes are concerned, we still hope that common sense will prevail."
The statement suggested Soviet surveillance satellites had spotted the fires Bush has accused Iraq of setting in Kuwaiti oil wells, as part of a "scorched earth policy."
Earlier in the day, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, who had come to Moscow with Baghdad's last package of terms for withdrawing from Kuwait, had denied the American accusation of the destruction of Kuwait.
Aziz left Moscow in the afternoon, after reiterating at a brief appearance before the press that Iraq stood by the last set of proposals for a conditional withdrawal Aziz had negotiated with the Soviet Union, a plan that Washington had declared insufficient.
At an earlier briefing, Ignatenko said Gorbachev had parted with Aziz with "last words of advice to weigh everything and to consider what this last phase of war could bring."
In the wake of the failure of the Soviet effort, Ignatenko made an effort to emphasize that Moscow stood behind the United States and its allies and that relations with Washington remained undimmed.
"President Gorbachev expressed deep concern that the American people had taken on the heavy burden of implementing the will of the international community in overcoming this serious obstacle to international peace, which the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait constituted," Ignatenko said.
"No ordeals, the president emphasized, could undermine the choice taken by the leaders of the two countries" to better their relations. "We have a vision of a new world, a new policy which we will some day arrive at, and I believe this day is not far away."
by CNB