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To: RGinPG who wrote (31426)	11/3/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

U.S. Consults With Saudis on Iraq By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Warning again of a possible military attack on Iraq, top Clinton administration officials sought the cooperation of Saudi Arabia, a key player in the Persian Gulf and in the U.S.-led combat operation against Baghdad eight years ago. As Defense Secretary William Cohen flew overnight to the region, with Saudi Arabia his first stop, Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made separate telephone calls to Crown Prince Abdallah, first in line to ailing King Fahd. As always, U.S. officials were reticent Tuesday about the contacts with the Saudis, who guard their relationship with the United States from exposure in the Arab world. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said only that Albright called Abdallah to underscore ''the gravity of the situation.'' Cohen took no reporters with him. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering was aboard, a signal that the Clinton administration was not abandoning diplomacy even while threatening President Saddam Hussein again for declaring an end to Iraq's cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors. But also with Cohen was Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander for the region. A Saudi official said Fahd had told Cohen in Riyadh that he would not permit the Arab kingdom to be used as a ''springboard'' for attacks on Iraq. Saudi Arabia was the center of U.S. war operations during the 1991 Gulf War that evicted Saddam's forces from Kuwait. If bases in Saudi Arabia were denied, one way the United States could get around the logistical problem would be by flying B52 bombers from Britain to Iraqi targets. Six of the bombers are there. Earlier, Cohen met with British Defense Secretary George Robertson in London and the two officials agreed ''it is crucial that Saddam Hussein reverse'' his stand on U.N. searches for illegal weapons. Albright, at a news conference here, said ''the end point here is not specifically to use force but to achieve what you want.'' She said, however, that ''all options remain on the table.'' ''The best kind of diplomatic action is when we can combine it with the potential of force,'' she said. Albright said it was her decision to remain in Washington to meet the new German foreign minister, Joschke Fischer, who stood beside her in the State Department Treaty Room, and that she had been on the telephone ''practically nonstop'' for 48 hours with friendly and allied governments. The new German minister, who leads his country's Green party, said the Iraq's dispute was not with the United States alone, but with the United Nations. Consequently, he said, the U.N. Security Council should adopt a new resolution that ''sets out a very clear-cut position'' on Iraq in an attempt to isolate Saddam Hussein. ''Obviously, the objective is not to use force'' but to permit the U.N. Special Commission to carry out unconditional surveillance of sites in Iraq where weapons may be stored, Fischer said. At the Pentagon, spokesman Capt. Michael Doubleday declined to say whether Cohen was seeking additional basing rights for any new infusion of allied troops into the region, or if he was discussing potential strikes to be launched from Arab soil in the Gulf. The United States has 23,000 troops in the Gulf region, with forces primarily in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Quatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have also hosted U.S. military forces during other conflicts with Iraq. There are 110 U.S. Air Force and 97 Navy warplanes in the region, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its battle group. Seven of the Navy ships carry Tomahawk cruise missiles with 1,000-mile ranges. Albright, trying to bolster allied support for a tough stand against Iraq, has telephoned British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Foreign Ministers Hubert Vedrine of France, Igor Ivanov of Russia and Luiz Felipe Lampreia of Brazil, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The State Department's position is that there is no need for a new U.N. Security Council resolution to authorize force, that there is a legal basis already to take action and that the United States could attack on its own if others did not choose to go along.