GULF WATCH: Day 121 : A Daily Briefing Paper On Developments In The Crisis

Diplomatic Front:

President Bush offered to send Secretary of State James A. Baker III to Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein and invited Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz to Washington to discuss a possible peaceful solution to the gulf crisis. But the President said he would not engage in discussions that would result in anything less than Iraq’s complete withdrawal from Kuwait.

If Iraq does not pull out of Kuwait by the Jan. 15 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council, the United States is prepared to use military force and is confident it has “enough power to get the job done,” the President said. He rejected suggestions that any action be delayed for months to give sanctions more time to work.

There was no immediate response from Baghdad, but Iraq’s ambassador to France, Abdul Razzack Hashimi, called the President’s announcement “a very important step toward peace.” Meanwhile, a statement by Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council called the U.N. ultimatum “illegal, null and void” and accused Washington of buying the votes of other nations. Embassy Front:

Easing a four-month siege of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, Iraqi officials have delivered fruit, vegetables and cigarettes to diplomatic personnel inside the mission, President Bush disclosed. The action appeared to be either a public relations gesture or to signal Iraq’s desire to keep the embassy standoff from prompting a military confrontation. Military Front:

Sens. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio) accused the Bush Administration of overstating the short-term threat posed by any Iraqi nuclear weapons program. The President, however, said he is “not going to err on the side of underestimation.” The French military deployment:

Troops in Saudi Arabia: 5,500

Other troops in region: 9,500

Jet fighters: 24

Helicopters: 72

Armored vehicles: 300

Warships: 10