U.N. Chief: War an Option : If Sanctions Fail, Iraq Risks Attack

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said in an interview published today that military intervention against Iraq would be legitimate if sanctions failed to budge Iraqi troops from occupied Kuwait.

Perez de Cuellar told the German weekly magazine Stern that “the members of the U.N. Security Council will have to wait a little and see whether sanctions will after all show some effect.”

He said if the economic sanctions do not work, military action against Iraq “would be perfectly legitimate” should the Security Council decide to sanction such a move.

Perez de Cuellar added that if the U.N. manages to resolve the crisis, “we will then have to immediately make efforts concerning the Palestinian problem.”

Iraq today reiterated its uncompromising stance even though President Saddam Hussein earlier had sought to link an Iraqi pullout from Kuwait to an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories.

“There is no change in Iraq’s stand on current national and pan-Arab issues,” an Iraqi information ministry spokesman told Baghdad Radio.

“Kuwait became an eternal part of Iraq on Aug. 8 (and) no Iraqi official has ever said that the whole of Kuwait is not Iraqi,” the spokesman added.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, on a mission to Moscow to discuss the Persian Gulf crisis, met with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today amid Soviet calls for a peaceful settlement to the dispute.

Tass news agency disclosed no details about Cheney’s meeting with Gorbachev and Soviet Defense Minister Dimitri Yazov.

Also today, Western diplomatic sources reported three British men escaped overland from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. The three took a long route across the desert, reaching the area of the Saudi town of Arar late Monday, said the sources in Saudi Arabia. They refused to reveal details about the route taken, saying they did not want to endanger others who might try the same.

No immediate details were available on how the men evaded Iraqi patrols and crossed the border. Their identities were not disclosed, but they were said to be in their 20s or 30s.

Three Britons and two Frenchmen escaped Iraq by sea earlier this month, but there have been no reported overland escapes since then.

Thousands of Westerners remain trapped in occupied Kuwait and Iraq, either in hiding or detained by the government of Iraqi President Hussein. His troops invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.