Sweeping Attack On U.S. Policy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 7

Sweeping Attack On U.S. Policy

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)

DAMASCUS, September 8.

The left-wing Syrian Government has made a sweeping attack on the United States, Saudi Arabia. Jordan and Israel as a result of the exposure of a military coup plot by ousted leaders of the ruling party.

In a statement announcing the plot, the ruling national leadership of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party gave notice that the days of “lenience and tolerance” were over in the country. The three ousted leaders named as principals in the plot were Mr Aflaq, founder of the Ba’ath Party 25 years ago, Mr Salaheddin Bitar, cofounder and Prime Minister until the coup last February which brought the present regime to power, and Dr. M. Al Razzaz, secretary-general of the party before the coup. The statement did not say which plotters had been caught, but revealed that Mr Bitar, gaoled after the February 23 coup, had escaped to join the plot.

All were members of the Ba’ath “international leadership” which went down with Major-General Amin AlHafez last February. The present regime, headed by the Chief of State, Mr N. Al-Atassi, and the Prime Minister, Mr Y. Zeayen, came from the Left wing of the Ba’ath Party.

The Government's statement accused the chief plotters of obsolete rightist tendencies and of conspiring

with imperialism and reaction to obstruct the Syrian revolution.

The plotters had planned to overthrow the national leadership by force and loose a wave of blood, terror and destruction across the country, said the statement.

Those responsible would be tried by a special security court.

The plotters had mobilised opportunists, fanatics, antigovernment elements and people opposed to the new regime’s “clear-cut revolutionary policies," the statement said. “The time for lenience and tolerance is over,” it warned, and the revolution would henceforth crush without hesitation any reactionary or anti-revolutionary movement. According to the statement, King Feisal of Saudi Arabia and President Johnson had allocated sums equivalent to “seven times the Syrian budget” for a joint fund to finance conspiracies against ‘socialist progressive regimes in the Arab world.”