{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW} •••• February

{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW}
••••
February 26 Février 1991
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LE TEMPS - Région parisienne: Variable
la plus grande partie de la journée.
Vent de sud-ouest. Il fera 13˚.
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SG/PRB/D(91)39
AFP: LE MONDE EN BREF
LONDRES - Radio-Bagdad a annoncé lundi soir que les troupes irakiennes
avaient reçu l’ordre de se retirer du Koweït, dans un communiqué capté à
Londres par les services d’écoute de la BBC. "Ceci est considéré comme une
acceptation pratique de la résolution 660" du Conseil de Sécurité de
l’ONU, a ajouté la radio officielle irakienne.
WASHINGTON - La Maison-Blanche a réagi très froidement à l’annonce de
l’ordre de retrait irakien, affirmant que Washington n’avait pas été
informé et que la guerre continuait. Quelques heures plus tard, M.
Fitzwater a annoncé que la Maison-Blanche rejetait l’annonce par Bagdad
d’un retrait de ses forces du Koweït sans une acceptation totale et
publique des 12 résolutions de l’ONU par le président irakien Saddam
Hussein. M. Fitzwater a ajouté qu’en cas de retrait hors de ces
conditions, les forces de la coalition n’attaqueraient pas les soldats se
repliant sans armes mais considéreraient comme unités de combat les forces
se retirant avec leurs matériels.
DAHRAN (Arabie Saoudite) - 27 militaires américains ont été tués et 98
autres ont été blessés lundi par la chute de débris d’un missile SCUD
irakien sur un bâtiment abritant des troupes américaines à Dahran, selon
des sources militaires américaines à Ryad.
BUDAPEST - Les représentants des 6 pays membres du pacte de Varsovie ont
prononcé lundi à Budapest la dissolution de la structure militaire du bloc
socialiste, 35 ans après sa création.
BELGRADE - Une centaine de personnes ont été arrêtées au cours des 3
derniers jours à Tirana, après les affrontements armés entre civils et
forces de l’ordre.
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WAR IN THE GULF
REUTER: Iraqi withdrawal doubted
NICOSIA - "Iraq, its occupation army virtually encircled by a
US-led blitzkrieg,, announced on Tuesday it was withdrawing from Kuwait.
The US administration accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of spinning a
web of broken promises and deception. It said the Gulf War would go on...
But a UN Security Council source said that the Soviet Union was considering proposing a ceasefire in the 40-day-old war, if Iraq formally
announced it was leaving the emirate... Almost 5 hours before the withdrawal announcement an Iraqi Scud missile smashed into a US military
barracks in eastern Saudi Arabia killing at least 27 US servicemen...
Unusually for such a major annoucement, Baghdad radio did not clearly
state that the withdrawal was a decision of the Revolution Command Council
headed by Saddam. ’This is regarded as a practical compliance with (UN
Security Council) resolution 660’, it said. ’Our armed forces which have
proven their ability to fight and stand fast will confront any attempt to
harm it while it is carrying out the withdrawal order’. Iraq’s UN
ambassador, Abdul Amir al-Anbari, said on his way to a closed-door meeting
of the UN Security Council he was ’reaffirming Iraq’s commitment to withdrawal from the Kuwaiti territories’. But Fitzwater said US President
George Bush was calling on Saddam to personally and publicly bow to all
allied demands and order his troops to lay down their arms and leave
Kuwait."
REUTER: Saddam in touch with Gorbachev
UNITED NATIONS - "Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has told Soviet President
Mikhaïl Gorbachev he was prepared to withdraw his troops from Kuwait
immediately, Soviet Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov said on Tuesday. The envoy
told a closed-door session of the Security Council that Gorbachev had just
received a message from Saddam which said the Iraqi leadership had decided
to withdraw all its troops immediately from Kuwait, council sources said.
Britain and the United States were said to have insisted on a
communication from Saddam, himself. Vorontsov later told reporters, ’We
conveyed just not long ago a message that has been sent by President
Saddam Hussein to President Gorbachev’... ’They say that President Saddam
Hussein already gave the order for withdrawal of all forces of Iraq from
Kuwait, that this is being implemented right now. The troops are moving
out and he asked to convey to the Security Council his request for the
ceasefire’, Vorontsov said."
THE TIMES: Iraq counterattacks
"The allied onslaught into Iraq and Kuwait gathered pace yesterday,
undeterred by the first Iraqi attempts to fight back. These included a
missile attack on a military camp in eastern Saudi Arabia which killed at
least 12 american soldiers... The attack came after Republican Guard tanks
had emerged from the bunkers to move south towards Kuwait for the first
time, only to be bombarded by American aircraft. Iraq also launched its
first silkworm anti-ship missiles at allied warships in the Gulf, but
these were intercepted by Sea Dart missiles fired from the British
destroyer, HMS Gloucester. All the while, the allied offensive continued
to gather pace. More and more Iraqi troops were surrendering, so that the
number of prisoners of war passed 20,000."
LES ECHOS: Don du Koweït à la France
PARIS - "’L’émir du Koweït vient de faire savoir au président de la
République française qu’il avait décidé de contribuer à hauteur de un
milliard de dollars à l’effort militaire français pour la libération de
son pays’, indique le ministère des Affaires étrangères, qui ajoute: ’Au
moment où les soldats français sont engagés dans l’action terrestre
destinée à mettre fin à une longue et cruelle occupation, la France
apprécie hautement cette manifestation de solidarité’. Au cours des
changes actuels, le don koweïtien représente 5,17 mrds de francs. A
Matignon, on précise que cette contribution, dont le principe avait été
arrêté lors de la visite de Michel Rocard à Taëf, est déjà prise en compte
dans l’évaluation des coûts de la guerre du Golfe pour la France. Celui-ci
serait actuellement compris entre 6 et 7 mrds de francs. Ce chiffre
recouvre à la fois le coût de l’opération Daguet et celui des sommes que
la Coface devra débourser pour les impayés subis en Irak et au Koweït par
les entreprises françaises."
USSR
HERALD TRIBUNE: Gorbachev names conservative
MOSCOW - "President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, named a conservative
economist, Vladimir Orlov, on Monday as the new Soviet finance minister
and retained 2-hard-line officials - the defense minister and the KGB
chief - in his new cabinet... Mr Orlov’s appointment must be confirmed by
parliament... The cabinet is the first to be drawn up under new power
structures giving Mr Gorbachev direct control over his ministers and
sweeping authority to direct policy."
FINANCIAL TIMES: Warsaw Pact ended
BUDAPEST - "The formal dissolution yesterday of the military wing of the
Warsaw Pact was overshadowed by the postponement of this week’s scheduled
summit which should also have brought to an end Comecon, the Soviet-led
trading bloc. The Soviet Union and the 5 other eastern European members of
the Warsaw Pact yesterday ended their military alliance, bringing to a
formal close its 36 years in armed juxtaposition with Nato. The end of the
pact is also a recognition of the severance of military links with the
Soviet Union after the eastern European revolutions of 1989 and elections
of 1990... But the Comecon postponement - due to internal disagreements clouded the atmosphere. Czechoslovakia yesterday invited Comecon ministers
to meet in Prague next weekend. Arguments between the Soviet Union and its
former allies erupted over what kind of organisation should succeed
Comecon, and over Soviet troop withdrawals from Poland."
OECD
FINANCIAL TIMES: Tied-aid credit to be curbed
WASHINGTON - "Leading industrial countries should be able to agree a new
package of rules limiting tied-aid credits by this summer’s annual meeting
of the OECD, Mr John Macomber, head of the US Eximbank, said yesterday.
The talks have been marked by deep differences between the US on the one
hand and the EC and Japan on the other over whether they should lead to
new curbs on US commodity credits. Mr Macomber said there were ’the
beginnings of some hope’ that the differences, which have threatened to
reduce the scope of any final agreement, could be resolved. The talks had
been through a discouraging time, but the problems were not as tough as
those which had had to be resolved when the OECD first agreed its matrix
system for curbing interest rate subsidies on export credits. He believed
participants were starting to accept there was no reason for linking
between farm credits and credits for manufactured goods such as
telecommunications and transportation equipment, for which the US wants
aid subsidies curbed."
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