Bush Begins His Arabian Adventure : Holiday Message to Troops: Not on a ‘Mission Impossible’

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia —  On the eve of a Thanksgiving Day trip to the front lines, President Bush conferred today with Arab leaders on the three-month standoff against Iraq. He said the 230,000 American troops on Saudi soil are not on a “mission impossible.”

After a 5 1/2-hour flight from Paris, Bush stepped from Air Force One into the warm, humid Saudi evening at this Red Sea port and was greeted by King Fahd.

Later, he was to meet privately with the exiled emir of Kuwait.

On Thursday, Bush and his wife, Barbara, will share Thanksgiving with troops at two desert military sites in Saudi Arabia and on a Navy ship in the Persian Gulf.

“If I do nothing else, I will convey to them the heartfelt thanks of the American people at this very special time of year for Americans,” Bush said.

He told reporters he would tell the troops that “we are going to prevail, that they’re not there on a mission impossible.”

Earlier today, Bush told reporters in Paris that he and Mikhail S. Gorbachev now see “eye to eye” on the crisis, even though the Soviet president’s public statements have reflected a greater reluctance to use military force to resolve the crisis.

The President is seeking support for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military force against Saddam Hussein if he does not leave Kuwait by a certain date.

French President Francois Mitterrand said in Paris today that the U.N. resolution against Iraq will likely be adopted within three weeks.

The President was to spend the night here, then fly east across the Saudi peninsula to the Persian Gulf city of Dhahran, not far from the Kuwaiti border.

He and his wife, top aides and a press pool of about two dozen are to board helicopters to visit three sites--an Army installation, a Marine encampment and a naval vessel in the Persian Gulf.