Last Chance To Talk

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The oddest assemblage of would-be peacemakers gathered last week in the Libyan seaside town of Misurata. Voicing fears of a Third World War, Libyan leader Gaddafi persuaded Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Hafez Assad to meet with him and the military ruler of the Sudan, Lieut. General Omar Hassan Bashir. While Egypt and Syria are firmly in the anti- Saddam camp, Libya and the Sudan have tended to sympathize with Baghdad. According to a Mubarak confidant, nothing was accomplished at Misurata, but the Egyptian and Syrian Presidents may have convinced their counterparts to adopt a more critical line on Iraq's behavior in Kuwait. Still, it is unlikely to affect peace prospects, since neither the Libyan leader nor the Sudanese holds any sway over Saddam.

Nor does anyone else, apparently. The problem remains what it was when Bush first proposed a Baker-Saddam meeting: the Iraqi leader is just not getting the message that the U.S. is serious about sending in its formidable Desert Shield battalions to enforce the U.N. ultimatum. According to a source close to Saddam, it isn't that the Iraqi President doesn't understand Washington but that even at this late date he strongly doubts that Bush will actually resort to force. "He doesn't feel he is in a weak position," said the source. In that case, the meeting in Geneva may be short indeed.