Word: aziz
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...rest of the meeting was no more productive, though the atmosphere was calm and professional. There was no shouting, no pounding on the table. Aziz politely asked if he could light a cigar, and Baker, a former smoker, just as politely said he would relish the aroma. But neither side had anything new to say. Neither of the men budged a jot from their mutually exclusive positions. Baker said Iraq must quit Kuwait without conditions or face war. Aziz insisted the gulf conflict must be solved in conjunction with all Middle East problems...
Though Baker, the diplomat, was clearly depressed by the outcome of the discussions, his boss, the Commander in Chief, was unfazed. As Bush aides explained it, the Baker-Aziz conference confirmed the President's expectations without realizing his worst fears. "Anybody who expected a breakthrough in Geneva was a fool," said a White House official. At the same time, the Administration had worried that the Iraqis would spring a dramatic surprise, offering, perhaps, a partial withdrawal, which would have frayed the coalition against Saddam and made Congress less likely to authorize Bush to use force. That Aziz unpopped no jack...
Certainly, the rejection of Bush's letter appeared to have been premeditated. U.S. officials believe Aziz had instructions to spurn anything other than a conciliatory message, though the Minister did study the letter as if to memorize its key parts. In fact, Bush's note was demanding though not recklessly impolite. It did contain one sentence that must have quickened Aziz's pulse: "Unless you withdraw from Kuwait completely and without condition," Bush wrote Saddam, "you will lose more than Kuwait...
Trying to prevent such a showdown is now primarily a job for anyone but the Americans. In Geneva, Aziz reminded Baker, "You are American. You are not the world." Given that sentiment, the U.N.'s Perez de Cuellar appeared to be the most suitable intermediary. "He is a diplomatic ladder on which Saddam can climb down," said a senior French envoy...
After his 0-0 game with Aziz ended, Baker remarked that the U.S. welcomed "any and all diplomatic efforts to solve this crisis peacefully," but he repeatedly singled out Perez de Cuellar's efforts to the exclusion of the others. Washington found comfort in the notion that the U.N. chief presumably would be bound to insist on an unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, since that is the demand contained in the 12 resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council since the invasion last August. Perez de Cuellar did bring . Saddam something new to mull over: a formal proposal that once...