Memorandum of Telephone Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Francois Mitterrand 21 February 1991 excerpt Mitterrand I am glad to hear your voice Gorbachev I am also very glad to hear you … I want to tell you very good news today at 3 a m we received a telegram from our ambassador in Baghdad He reports that today Tariq Aziz is departing Baghdad for Moscow with a reply to our proposals The telegram does not contain any information about the substance of the reply Our position just like yours is firm The main thing is for Iraq to give us an answer to the most important question An immediate answer to one main question without any frills and ultimatums Mitterrand Yes this is very important Gorbachev Iraq must understand that in the next phase when the Security Council will convene again the USSR France and other countries will be involved and Iraq’s situation will be more difficult But that will already be a different phase But today Iraq must adopt an unambiguous decision This is the main news that I wanted to share with you Let’s see what will come of it I have already informed President Bush about it Mitterrand Your role in this crisis is the decisive one at this current turning point which will decide whether there will be peace or whether military operations will be expanded Today the time factor is especially important and also that there could be no new conditions on the part of Saddam Hussein It is important that they understand in Baghdad that if by the same time tomorrow we do not have an absolutely unambiguous answer to the one and only question then nothing obviously could prevent a large-scale offensive by ground forces It is important that he understands the extreme urgency of answering this question especially because there are some persons and some countries which even in the face of a positive reply from Saddam Hussein would still strive to continue the conflict One might even say that now the last decisive quarter of the hour has begun Gorbachev I will do everything that depends on me Mitterrand I know that you are doing everything that depends on you Now everything depends only on one person Gorbachev Your deep relationship with the United States could play a role here Mitterrand I already sent a letter to President Bush and spoke with him on the phone yesterday It is very important that he be informed immediately if Saddam Hussein agrees to accept the condition presented to him Gorbachev … President Bush must also understand that the development of frank contacts and participating in them are in his interests too Mitterrand Yes you are absolutely right We have a saying you need two people to have a wedding Iraq must be brought to understand this evening something still can be done but then it will be too late Especially if you take the time difference into account when Aziz arrives in Moscow it will be 9 p m your time 7 p m in Paris and just 1 p m in Washington Gorbachev As soon as Tariq Aziz arrives here even if it is night already I will meet with him immediately and then inform you about the results Mitterrand I appreciate it Gorbachev I even decided to send a plane for Aziz to Iraq in order to speed up his arrival Mitterrand This is very smart because connections with Iraq are extremely difficult now Source Archive of the Gorbachev Foundation Fond 1 opis 1 Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya for the National Security Archive