Syrian call to Arabs to be ready for war

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 8

Syrian call to Arabs to be ready for war

NZPA-Reuter

The Syrian Information Minister (Mr Ahmad Iskander) has issued a thinlyveiled call to the Arab States to go to war with Israel if present efforts for a peaceful solution of the Middle East conflict fail. In an interview with the independent Beirut weekly, “Monday Morning,” Mr Iskander painted a gloomy picture of progress towards peace, in glaring contrast to optimism voiced at the week-end by President Carter of the United States.

“Taking into consideration Israel’s daily statements indicating Israel’s refusal to withdraw from Arab lands,” he said, “we do not think there is one glimmer of hope that the Geneva conference will convene.”

When all peace efforts and attempts to achieve a lasting and just peace failed, he said, “It is my opinion that the Arabs must use all means at their disposal to impose the resolutions of the United Nations, liberate the lands that were taken from them in (the 1967 (Arab-Israeli war), and restore the rights of the Palestinians.”

Mr Carter on Sunday des-

cribed the recent Middle East tour of the United States Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance), aimed at accelerating progress towards resumption of the 1973 Middle East peace conference, as “very successful,” and voiced optimism on chances of progress towards peace. Mr Iskander was quoted as commenting: “With Israel announcing in advance its refusal to withdraw and its rejection of Palestinian rights, to what purpose are we to hold a Geneva peace conference?” Mr Vance’s tour ran into deadlock when Israel reiterated its refusal to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which it considers a terrorist organisation.

Mr Iskander’s pessimistic view of peace prospects comes amid mounting fears among Arab diplomats that the Middle East impasse is more likely to result in a fifth Arab-Israeli war than a negotiated settlement. The Syrian official emphasised again that his country had no objection to a unified Arab delegation to Geneva talks — a proposal rejected by Egypt — “on condition that P.L.O. representatives form part of that delegation.”

The P.L.O.’s chief, Mr Yasser Arafat, is in Moscow for talks with Soviet officials.

He is expected to confer with the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko). The P.L.O. leader was last in Moscow in April, when he was personally assured by the Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev) of Moscow’s continuing support for the Palestinian cause. Mr Brezhnev told him then that the Soviet Union saw national rights for the Palestinians as an inseparable part of an over-all Middle East settlement. In Cairo, an Egyptian spokesman said that Libyan and Egyptian officials were meeting at the frontier town of Salloum to discuss the issues that led to fierce fighting on their border last month Palestinian sources said the talks were expected to cover technical matters such as the exact line of the desert frontier. Broader political issues would be left to a possible summit meeting between the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi and the Egyptian President ♦ (Mr Anwar Sadat).