KREMLIN WARNING: Conflict Close To Danger Point

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 11

KREMLIN WARNING: Conflict Close To Danger Point

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright; BEIRUT, February 4. The United States, Britain and France have been warned by the Soviet Union that the Israeli*Arab conflict is close to danger point.

The warning, contained in separate Notes from the Soviet Union Prime Minister (Mr Alexei Kosygin) to the governments of the three Great Powers, is being given close scrutiny in Washington, London and Paris before replies are made.

Al’ hough the contents of the Notes have not been published, officials in the three Western capitals have let it be known that the messages reflect growing Soviet Union concern about the recently - increased tension and military activity, between Israel and the Arab States.

American officials, who say that the Notes have done nothing to ease the situation, regard them as an attempt to head off further United States arms supplies to Israel. President Nixon said last Friday that he would decide within the next 30 days whether to provide Israel with more Phantom and Skyhawk jet aircraft. Diplomatic sources In Washington say that the new Russian initiative implies that further American assistance to Israel will prompt the supply of additional Russian weapons to the Arab nations, particularly Egypt However, the Notes are said not to have evoked particular apprehension in Washington; and in London, British and Soviet Union officials denied that Russia is planning to intervene in the Middle East A more alarming note was sounded in Paris, where diplomatic sources said that Mr Kosygin had given a warning that the Soviet Union could not guarantee to restrain the Arabs from all-out war if the present situation continued. In his message to President Pompidou. reliable sources say, Mr Kosygin said that he might have to take new measures to help the Arabs.

The sources add that Mr Kosygin urged Mr Pompidou to impress on President Nixon when he visits Washington later this month the need to use his influence to curb Israel. London View According to reliable diplomatic sources in London, the Kremlin has made it clear that Russia is keeping all her options open, but wants a political settlement It urged the Western leaders to press Israel to “cool it,” since Russia could not stand by idly if the intensification of the conflict led to all-out war. Mr Kosygin’s personal

Notes to his Western counterparts, running to two pages, are said to have been couched in very firm terms. They urged that Israel’s steadilyincreasing attacks on Arab territory close to Cairo should be curbed, and asked the three Western leaders to impress the great urgency of this course on the Israeli leadership. | Communist sources in :London say that President iNasser is under very heavy pressure to respond in force to the attacks, but that Russia has been advising until now against any action that might lead to all-out war. The sources indicate that tension has developed between Moscow and Cairo because of Moscow’s reluctance so far to increase arms supplies and deliver aircraft and missiles to Egypt on an appreciable scale. The Communist sources say that Russia may have no alternative but to yield and supply such weapons. Israeli Pledge In Tel Aviv last night the Israeli Prime Minister (Mrs Golda Meir) said that Israel would stop her military activity against Arab countries when they decided to respect the Middle East cease-fire agreements. “The moment the Arab countries realise that the cease-fire obligates both sides, there will be no more bombardments,” Mrs Meir said in a radio interview. “The conflict was broadened by the Arabs soon after the 1967 war, although they themselves had asked for the cease-fire. If we had sat silently while they shot at us, the world would not have said that this was escalation. Yet when we answer, it is called escalation.”

In London, Mr George Brown, the deputy leader of the British Labour Party and a former foreign secretary,

.said in a radio interview that the capital of Iraq looked like an advanced Russian base, like an arms city. Mr Brown, who recently returned to London after a tour. of the Middle East, said he had no doubt that Iraq was: at combat level.

“I think that what is worrying Russia—and why she is frightening the world, Israel and everybody else—is that she is frightened herself. “Having got to this level, Russia can get into the same situation as America in Vietnam. Russia is playing her own game, but she is keeping it just below flash-point, because that is what suits her best”

Of Bagdad city, Mr Brown said: “I thought it looked like an advance Russian base. I have not said this before, and I am not sure if it is sensible to say it now, but, anyway, there it is.” Fresh Attacks From Beirut it is reported that Israeli and Egyptian aircraft attacked each other’s positions along the Suez Canal yesterday, and a Cairo spokesman said that Egyptian commandos crossed the Gulf of Suez to attack Israeli positions in the Southern Sinai Peninsula with rockets.

Israel, denying the truth of the report, said that Israeli troops were searching for possible traces of an Egyptian attack in some remote place. After yesterday’s Israeli raids, Cairo reported its worst toll since the 1967 war—4l soldiers and civilians killed or wounded in two strikes.

Two Egyptian aircraft attacked an Israeli Army position near the Suez Canal today according to a military spokesman in Tel Aviv. He said two Russian-made Sukhoi 7 aircraft made a "hit-and-run attack” on an Israeli position south of Little Bitter Lake, causing only slight damage and no casualties.