Germany, Belgium Call Back Envoys in Kuwait

Germany and Belgium said today their last diplomats have left Kuwait, leaving only the United States and three other Western missions open.

A jetliner carrying 272 evacuees from Kuwait and Iraq, almost all Americans, left London today for the United States, the last leg of the first U.S.-chartered flight from Iraq in nearly three weeks.

Iraq reportedly has barred elderly American men from leaving Iraq and Kuwait.

In a speech to Iraqi children, President Saddam Hussein said President Bush and the U.N. embargo on Iraq have deprived them of milk and sweets, but urged them to do without candy to maintain their pride and dignity. The speech, marking Iraqi Children’s Day, was read by an announcer on Baghdad radio and television.

In London, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said the chartered Pan Am jetliner carrying 272 people left at 1:59 p.m. and was expected at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina about 7 1/2 hours later.

A group of 321 Americans and other Western evacuees from Iraq landed near London on Thursday in the first such flight in nearly three weeks.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said in Washington that U.S. officials have received reports that Iraqi authorities are now barring American men 55 and older from leaving Iraq and Kuwait. She said previous indications were that American males of that age and those under 18 were allowed to leave.

Recent State Department estimates indicated more than 600 Americans were stranded in Kuwait and more than 300 in Iraq. Some are being held at strategic Iraqi installations to deter possible attack.

In Bonn, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the last diplomats in the German Embassy drove from Kuwait to Baghdad on Thursday. ZDF television, a German station, said the group included the ambassador and his wife, along with three embassy staff members.

Belgian officials in Brussels said their remaining two diplomats also left for Baghdad on Thursday.

That leaves the Americans, British, Canadians and French as the only holdouts among Western missions.