Kuwaiti Saudi Arabia

Gas masks began appearing on sale in pharmacies in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, but the government remained officially silent on the possibility of attack from Iraq. Although there is widespread anxiety here over the presence of Iraqi troops on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border, this monarchy's government so far has not prepared the public to cope with a possible attack, whether by gas or conventional weapons. Doctors have been hurriedly trained in how to respond to chemical attacks.

Gas masks began appearing on sale in pharmacies in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, but the government remained officially silent on the possibility of attack from Iraq. Although there is widespread anxiety here over the presence of Iraqi troops on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border, this monarchy's government so far has not prepared the public to cope with a possible attack, whether by gas or conventional weapons. Doctors have been hurriedly trained in how to respond to chemical attacks.

Saudi Arabia warned Iran it will use force to prevent a repetition of last year's bloody riots in Mecca, which killed at least 402 pilgrims, including 275 Iranians. "Any departure from the basic rituals of the pilgrimage will be met with force and firmness, and the Iranians know this," the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayif ibn Abdulaziz, told a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Oil production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose nearly 1 million barrels a day in November to hit a daily level of 23.63 million barrels and is expected to increase further, the Middle East Economic Survey reported today. Amid continuing war jitters in the Persian Gulf, the respected oil industry newsletter said the increase was partly due to Saudi Arabia hiking its daily production by 530,000 barrels to 8.33 million barrels.

There's no global shortage of oil--yet. There doesn't have to be one. The U.N.-sanctioned international embargo to punish Iraq's aggression has halted oil exports from Iraq and Kuwait. But this has created only a manageable problem of sourcing , not of supply . The major industrialized countries have hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in storage, precisely as a cushion against any net supply losses. The U.S.

Hat in one hand and begging bowl in the other, the United States is again about to begin knocking on doors to solicit international financial support for its operations in the Persian Gulf. Like last September's initial fund-raising drive, this exercise in cajolery and supplication seems likely to prove an embarrassing and even a humiliating experience. That the undertaking is also--or should be--wholly unnecessary is self-evident.

Several OPEC ministers said Monday that the cartel should hold its oil taps wide open during the winter, even though a glut of crude may be forming. Saudi Arabia's influential oil minister, Hisham Nazer, said the 13-nation cartel should produce enough in the months ahead to cover demand from oil-consuming nations. "We want to meet the demand in the market," he said after arriving late Monday for the winter conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The meeting begins today.

"The future is bleak for us," Jordanian Foreign Minister Taher Masri said Saturday, summing up problems confronting the Arab world as its leaders gathered for a meeting here. "We look on Iran as a real, real danger. We look at the social conflicts taking place in our societies as very serious and dangerous. It's time for this summit, . . . maybe even a little late."

Dealing a dramatic blow to its Muslim neighbor and key trading partner, Turkey told Iraq on Tuesday that it will no longer allow Iraqi oil to be loaded into tankers off the Turkish coast and froze all Iraqi and Kuwaiti assets in the country. The Turkish decision, which in effect closes two Iraqi pipelines at their outflow point on the Mediterranean, effectively shuts off half of Iraq's outlet for its oil.