Danger of all-out war in Mideast growns

| U.S. threatens Syria attack

By TOM FOLEY
Daily World
The danger of all out warfare in the Middle East
increased as a top Reagan Administration official
threatened that the U.S. would take military steps
against Syria and as U-S. fighter jets buzzed a
Bulgarian airliner near Beirut recently. ;

The U.S. threat to attack Syria was made in
Seoul by Reagan’s national security advisor,
Robert McFarlane. He referred to the U.S. inva-
sion of Grenada and told reporters that “the U.S.
has made it clear recently in another context, in
the Caribbean’’ that the U.S. does not respect the

it of sovereign countries to defend themselves.
fact the U.S. abstained on a recent vote in the
United Nations on respecting the sovereignty of
| Countries. The vote was 142-0, with the U.S. cast-
ing the lone abstention.
McFarlane stressed that the Grenada invasion
makes it clear to everybody that threats or attacks
‘nthe U.S. (that is, resistance to U.S. imperialism)
Cannot become a matter of policy, whether it is
yria or some other country.”
Bulgaria has lodged a strong protest with the
U.S. Embassy in Sofia over the November 10 buz-
Zing of a Bulgarian civilian airliner by U.S. fighter
Planes. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry protest
Note said the warplanes made several near-miss
} Passes around the airliner which was 40-60 miles
‘om Beirut on its regular Sofia-Beirut passenger
t.

The situation has become extremely tense
ound Beirut, so much so that Air France an-
Nounced it was cancelling all flights into Beirut
international airport until further notice. Other air-

S were expected to follow the lead of Air

Tance.

_ The Soviet Union expressed its support for Syria

a recent joint Soviet-Syrian communique re-
; leased in Moscow. The communique was issued

following the conclusion of talks between Foreign
| Minister Andrei Gromyko of the USSR and
Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam of Syria.

The joint communique condemned the arbitrari-
Ness and lawlessness of the Reagan Administration

Caribbean in particular.” Washington’s military
Moves are ‘‘fraught with grave consequences both
for the cause of peace and for the United States
itself,” the USSR and Syria said.

At the United. Nations Security Council in New
York, Syrian Ambassador Diallah al-Fattal said

around the world, ‘in Central America and the.

that the U-S. ‘‘is planning to deliver a massive blow
against Lebanon.” He pointed out that the US.
has concentrated three carrier task forces with 300
war-planes directly off the Lebanese coast, the
biggest such massing of naval airpower since
World War II. Washington has made repeated
threats tht it will ‘‘punish’’ Syria by some kind of
armed attack, he said. ;
Richard Ovinnikov, the Soviet representative,
told the Security Council that ‘‘the U.S. is planning
a large-scale military operation in Lebanon.”’ He
said that Washington is closely coordinating its
actions with the Israeli aggressors who are still
occupying one-third of Lebanon.
Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko stressed that
Middle East developments ‘‘are assuming an in-
creasingly tense character. This is one of the direct
consequences of Washington’s adventurist policy
aimed at securing the dominant position in the
world for the U.S., so that it will be able to dictate

299

its will to others from ‘positions of strength’.

Gromyko, in Moscow at a luncheon for Syrian
Foreign Minister Khaddam, said the U.S. aggres-
sors were ‘‘flinging one threat after another’’ at
Syria, ‘‘which holds a steadfast position in Middle
Eastern affairs.”” In Lebanon, Gromyko said, the
U.S. is making ‘‘a bid to widen and consolidate the
imperialist military presence in the Middle East.

‘The USSR is of the view that in the interests of
normalizing the situation in Lebanon and around it,
the interventionist troops of Israel must be im-
mediately withdrawn from Lebanese territory in
the first place. This also applies to the military
contingents of the U.S. and other NATO countries
referred to as the ‘multi-national force,’”’
Gromyko said.

“Taking into consideration the dangerous
development of the situation in connection with
Lebanon,” the Soviet foreign minister said, ‘‘the
USSR has warned in the most serious manner
those who are hatching plans to widen armed inter-
ference in the internal affairs of Lebanon and its
people.”

The Soviet foreign minister emphasized: ‘‘We
regard as highly important and urgent the need for
overcoming strife and restoring unity within the
ranks of the liberation movement of the Arab
people of Palestine, which must remain an active
and effective factor of the anti-imperialist struggle
in the Middle East.’’ He said the USSR believes
the Middle East problem can only be solved
through an international conference.

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Mostly quiet at Commonwealth

NEW DELHI — Compromise and quiet appeared to have the
upper hand over justice and principle as the Commonwealth
conference wound down to its final communique. It was perhaps
sharpest on Namibia’s independence, denouncing South Africa’s
illegal occupation of the country in defiance of United Nations
demands for withdrawal. The Commonwealth rejected the stand
by both the South African apartheid regime and the USA, that
neighboring Angola must get rid of Cuban troops it called upon
for aid, before Namibia can be granted its independence (i.e.
before South Africa’s military will withdraw).

The communique’s position on the Middle East was later part-
ly disavowed by Britain. It called for Israeli withdrawal from
territories it has occupied since the 1967 war, for recognition of
Palestinian rights to a separate homeland, and the Palestine
Liberation Organization as the sole, legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people.

On Grenada, the USA and its puppets appear to have come
through unscathed, with no mention of an ‘invasion’ or of the
“‘USA”’, but simply Thatcher’s “‘reconstruction’’ concerns.

World News

Strategic talks continue

GENEVA — U.S.-Soviet talks on the reduction of strategic
arms (intercontinental missiles) resumed Nov. 29 between Soviet
and U.S. negotiators Viktor Karpov and Edward Rowny, al-
though the Soviet spokesman said, **... the position of the
American side is not for agreement.”

The parallel talks on medium-range missiles in Europe, which
were taking place here, broke down when the West German
parliament voted to begin deployment of U.S. Pershing 2 missiles
on its territory, thus upsetting the rough parity in East-West
arsenals.

Paris protests missiles
In one of the largest actions for disarmament ever, 250,000
Parisians took to the streets to protest the stationing of Cruise and
Pershing missiles in Western Europe. The French peace move- -
ment, has joined those in other countries calling for a nuclear
weapons freeze and establishing a nuclear-weapons free zone.

HELSINKI — “‘In defiance of the will
Of the overwhelming majority of the
Peoples of the Federal Republic of Ger-
Many, Great Britain and Italy, the first
United States medium-range missiles
have started arriving in these three coun-
tries. This coldly calculated act of the
Reagan administration and its closest
NATO allies has blown up the Geneva
Negotiations and has accelerated the
arms race. The danger of a nuclear holo-
Caust is now greater than ever before!”’
The president of the World Peace
Council, Romesh Chandra, in making
these remarks at a press conference here,
Nov. 28, asserted that, the President of
the Soviet Union, ‘Yuri Andropov, in
his statement of November 24, had reit-
erated the determination of the Soviet
Union to do everything possible to pre-
Vent a nuclear war and to ensure peace.
He has made it clear that the steps which
are being taken by the Soviet Union in
Tesponse to the U.S. deployment of
Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles, will be
limited to the minimum necessary to en-
Sure a strict military balance and would
cancelled the moment that the new
NATO missiles are withdrawn:
“President Andropov has clearly
Stated that the Soviet Union is ready and
anxious to continue the Geneva negotia-
tions on medium-range missiles and that

Missiles can still be stopped — Chandra

these can be re-started as soon as the
reason for their suspension — the:
deployment of U.S. first-strike missiles
in Europe — has been removed,”
Chandra said.

He stated that, “The Soviet Union
stands wholeheartedly for a nuclear
weapon freeze by all nuclear weapons
powers, and in the first place a U.S.-
Soviet freeze, and is ready to join an
agreement for such a freeze here and
now.

Missiles and Hot War

The deployment of new U.S. missiles
in western Europe has been accom-
panied’ by an intensification of the
Reagan administration’s militarist
policies and its aggression and inter-
vention in different regions of the world
_— the Middle East and the Mediter-
ranean, Central America and the Carib-
bean, Central and southern Africa, the
Indian Ocean, South and South-east
Asia and the Far East,’’ Chandra

charged.
‘“‘World Public opinion,”’ he said, has

condemned the invasion and occupation
of Grenada, the most recent and blatant
example of Reaganism, which threatens
humanity with nuclear annihilation and
violates at the same time the sovereignty

and independence of nations.

“The last few weeks have seen the
biggest ever demonstrations all over the
world against the deployment of Persh-
ing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe,’’ he
reminded. ‘‘More and more political par-
ties, trade unions, churches, women’s
and youth organizations are joining the
anti-war and peace movements whose
strength is steadily growing. The over-
whelming majority of governments have
pronounced themselves at the United
Nations for a freeze in the production,
testing and deployment of nuclear
weapons!

‘‘The World Peace Council,’’ Chandra
stated, ‘appeals to all governments and
parliaments, to all peace and anti-war
movements and other non-governmental
organizations, to all individuals who
value life on earth to act as never before.

To stop the further deployment of
Pershing ‘and Cruise missiles and en-
sure that those already deployed are
withdrawn, so that the Geneva negotia-
tions on medium-range missiles in
Europe can be resumed and move for-
ward toward the agreements de-.
manded by millions all over the world.

The World Peace Council calls for the
observance of the week from December
4 to 12 as the International Week of Ac-

ROMESH CHANDRA... calls for week of
action against missile deployment.

tion Against the Deployment of the Persh-
ing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe.
‘‘et the demand for an immediate nu-
clear weapons freeze become stronger
and stronger till it becomes irresistible,”
the World Peace Council appealed. “The
militarist policies of Reaganism can and
must be stopped now!”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 7, 1983—Page 9