Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KUWAIT LENGTH: Medium
Meanwhile, six Persian Gulf countries committed their own troops to the allied effort after a meeting in Kuwait with Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
One option Christopher pursued with the Gulf ministers and with British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd was establishing a zone near the Kuwaiti border that would be off-limits to Iraqi tanks and other heavy military equipment. Iraqi flights already are banned in the area.
Defense Secretary William Perry was expected to continue those discussions when he arrived in the region today. However, facing resistance from some allies, the White House was not publicly pushing the idea Wednesday.
Although U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said she had raised the idea at the United Nations, White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers told reporters, ``That is not a proposal that we have shopped around.''
The French, in particular, urged caution. Two French Cabinet ministers said Iraq had not violated any agreements and the West should not overreact.
Whatever the details of the allied response, Christopher said, ``we are resolved and committed that Saddam should not be permitted to project the world into crisis at his own whim.''
Saudi Arabia and five smaller oil nations - Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait itself - agreed to deploy part of their 19,000-man ``Peninsula Shield'' in Kuwait along with additional troops from each of the six. The total was not announced.
In Washington, a senior military official said at the Pentagon that most Iraqi forces that had been massed near the Kuwaiti border were leaving.
``Portions of all but one brigade have moved,'' the official said, though he cautioned it was not known where the troops were going. It will be several days before that can be determined, so no hold is being placed on the flow of U.S. troops into the region, officials said.
There are nearly 20,000 U.S. soldiers and marines in Kuwait, an additional 44,500 deployed or on the way to the area, and 156,000 on alert. Hurd said a British battalion arrived Tuesday, and France was sending air and naval forces.
The Pentagon said Iraq in recent days had increased its tanks near Kuwait from 650 to 1,090.
Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, said his country had indeed withdrawn its forces. ``All troops whose deployment had caused such an uproar in the United States have completed their retreat to rear positions this evening,'' he said.
by CNB