Between compromise
November 12, 1990 • #194 International Viewpoint and war
TOWARDS the end of
October intensive political manoeuvering took place around the Gulf Crisis.
These manoeuvres Involve a search for a compromise solution - an outcome that
Washington is working to prevent.
SALAH JABER
T HE aim of the manoeuvres is to
find a compromise which would allow Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, but keep the islands of Boubiyan and Warba that command access to the Gulf. Baghdad has been demanding these islands from the emir of Kuwait for a long time, even proposing to rent them on a long lease. There are several factors working for a solution of this type — on the one hand, the blockade is beginning to seriously affect Iraq, and on the other, the supporters of compromise reckon that the overall political context of the crisis requires a negotiated solution.
On the Iraqi side, Saddam Hussein is sending out an increasing number of signals that he is ready for a deal. The most obvious means he has, of course, is to free the Western hostages that he holds. The freeing of hostages to the Spanish state, of British hostages to the ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath, of Americans to a representative of the Iraqi-American friendship association, up to the decision confirmed on October 23 to free all the remaining French hostages, are all signs of the current Iraqi posture.
### French hostages freed
The praise for the French position employed by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz to explain the freeing of his French "guests" is another signal of the Iraqi search for a compromise. Baghdad wants to get out of Kuwait without losing face; this means that Iraq must achieve some territorial gain — thus the islands -and produce some sort of prize to show to the Arab public opinion that has supported it. This last requirement could be met by a demand from several quarters, including Iraq, for a conference to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a demand that Washington would find difficult to
IRAQ IRAN Rumaila Warba Oilfield Bubiyan -KUWAIT Kuwait City
SAUDI
ARABIA reject after having promised itself to act on this question after the Kuwait issue is settled.