Saudis offer oil to Jordan as lure to join embargo

AMMAN, Jordan Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide Jordan withhalf of its daily oil needs, Jordanian officials said Wednesday, in amove that observers said is aimed at weaning Jordan from itsreluctance to apply a United Nations embargo against Iraq.

The provision of oil would help cushion some of the cost forJordan of enforcing an embargo against Iraq. For the last decade,Jordan has received 90 percent of its crude oil from Iraq.

The estimated 33,000 barrels a day to be provided by SaudiArabia would make up only about 50 percent of Jordan's needs, and itis not clear where the balance will come from.

The decision to accept oil from Saudi Arabia may force KingHussein to soften his criticism of Saudi Arabia for inviting U.S.troops to confront Iraq.

King Hussein, at a press conference, gave no details on the dealwith Saudi Arabia, saying, "Certainly, I think that Jordan will tryto seek to get some oil to meet its needs - how and from where, Idon't know." But at the same time he said Jordan would continue toreceive oil from Iraq.

The Jordanian monarch also said he would restart his own brandof shuttle diplomacy, embarking on an international tour to try toget diplomatic solutions to the Persian Gulf crisis off the ground.One visit will be to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, hesaid.

But Western sources said they view the efforts of King Hussein,as a smoke screen intended to mask his pro-Iraqi political stand.Jordan insists that to condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait would endits self-designated role as diplomatic middleman.

"Let's face it, the United States does not need the king to talkwith Saddam," one Western diplomat said. "But it is convenient for(him) to maintain the fiction."

In Iraq, Baghdad television announced that President Husseinwould respond today to an impassioned plea for peace from EgyptianPresident Hosni Mubarak. Later, the state-run news agency declaredof Mubarak: "Whatever his good intentions, he is not offeringfundamental solutions."

The confrontation, the news agency said, "is between right andwrong, between vice and virtue . . . between freedom and the tails ofthe foreigners."

The news agency said in another item that two aircraft fromSaudi Arabia crossed the southern borders of Iraq, presumably west ofKuwaiti territory, and penetrated three miles into Iraqi airspace.It did not identify the type or nationality of the aircraft.

It is unclear how King Hussein could shield himself from thepolitical cost of complying with the UN-sanctioned trade embargoagainst Iraq. Applying the sanctions is a volatile question inJordan because many here support Saddam Hussein and his policies.

The king has been unwilling to indicate he will enforce theembargo, calling the invasion of Kuwait "justified" and saying Iraqis fighting for its "very existence."

"You can suggest we should block traffic completely across theborder," he told a questioner. "There are so many aspects to theproblem. We are trying to work them out as best we can."