Iraq Foreign Relations Ussr

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev sent his top foreign policy adviser to the Middle East on Wednesday to explore with Arab leaders the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis. Yevgeny M. Primakov, a member of Gorbachev's policy-making Presidential Council and one of his closest advisers, is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad today with a message from the Soviet leader for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein indicated to a visiting Soviet official that Baghdad might withdraw its troops from most of Kuwait if it could keep the islands that control Iraq's outlet to the sea and a disputed oil field, a Soviet news agency reported Sunday. Iraq later denied the report. Hussein told Yevgeny M. Primakov, who visited Baghdad earlier this month as an emissary of Soviet President Mikhail S.

The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it has scrapped the controversial gasoline-rationing program installed just five days earlier, dismissed the oil minister who authored the plan and replaced him with President Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. The surprising development came as a Moscow trouble-shooter, pursuing a Soviet scent of Iraqi flexibility, met twice with Hussein. Gasoline rationing was a double blow to Hussein. It led foreign analysts to conclude that the U.N.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, citing hints of a change in the attitude of Iraqi leaders, Saturday urged the worldwide alliance against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein not to panic into war but to keep up the search for a peaceful solution to the Persian Gulf crisis.

Iraq launched a diplomatic offensive Thursday in an effort to punch its way out of international isolation, sending a senior official to Jordan to confer with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and announcing plans for similar meetings with European officials.

While the continued presence of 193 Soviet military advisers in Iraq has drawn harsh criticism from Congress, far more crucial services actually are being provided by about 7,000 Soviet civilians who are still at work on projects vital to Baghdad's economy, U.S. experts said Friday. Both the Soviet Union and the Bush Administration have sought to play down the importance of the advisers, stressing instead the areas in which Moscow has cooperated with the international effort against Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz met with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday amid suggestions that Baghdad wants Moscow to mediate the crisis in the Persian Gulf region. But the Soviet Union appeared increasingly angered by Iraq's refusal to obey the U.N. Security Council's call for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait.

About 24 hours before the announcement of next Sunday's U.S.-Soviet summit, a reporter asked Mikhail S. Gorbachev about his travel plans. "I will limit my trips abroad to the minimum in this period--to the possible minimum," the Soviet president replied after two days of meetings on how to salvage the economy.

The foreign ministers of China and the Soviet Union, after a meeting Saturday that reflected warming Moscow-Beijing ties, said their countries will work together to promote a peaceful resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis. Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, without offering details, also declared that the two countries believe that the 12-year war in Cambodia--in which Moscow and Beijing back opposing sides--will soon end.

Soviet combat troops will participate in any military action against Iraq that is authorized by the U.N. Security Council, Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Saturday. "We will comply with any decision, with any resolution of the Security Council," Shevardnadze said. "And that would include anything regarding the involvement of Soviet troops under the flag, under the auspices, of the United Nations."