U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, following a 90-minute meeting with President Francois Mitterrand, said Tuesday that there was “total agreement” between Paris and Washington that Iraq must abide by U.N. resolutions ordering the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait by Jan. 15.
But France still favors an international conference to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is flatly rejected by President Bush and Baker.
Baker is in Europe firming up the support of America’s allies before his crucial meeting Wednesday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz in Geneva.
It will be the first high-level contact between the United States and Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.
Michel Vauzelle, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Parliament, said that if the Baker-Aziz talks in Geneva failed, France would send a member of its government to Baghdad.
Vauzelle, who met himself with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad last week, observed somewhat cryptically that Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was a tactical move to obtain “something else.”
He refused to elaborate.
Baker met with British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd in London on Monday. Both were unequivocal in their insistence that Iraq get out of Kuwait.
Baker’s three-hour stay in Paris was followed by a flight to Bonn to confer with Germany’s foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher.
He also met with Chancellor Helmut Kohl before flying to Milan for a meeting with the Italian foreign minister, Gianni De Michelis.
“The international community is very solidly unified in the view that there must be full implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions,” Baker said after his talk with Genscher.
The Security Council has authorized all measures, including the use of force, if Iraq has not withdrawn its troops from Kuwait by Jan. 15.
But there was an element of confusion here.
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