Libya seeks Soviet aid for hawks

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 8

Libya seeks Soviet aid for hawks

NZPA-Reuter Tripoli The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, will ask the Soviet Union for greater military and political backing to help Arab hawks undermine • Egypt’s peace' treaty with Israel. Five hard-line Arab leaders announced their decision to seek .-help from Moscow in opposing the United States-sporisored Middle East peace process, at the end of a three-day summit meeting in Tripoli. The Soviet Union has not previously been closely involved in. the opposition to the Camp David accords, though it has ties with seveial of the members of the “Steadfastness and Confrontation Front,” which groups Libya, Syria, South

Yemen, Algeria, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Front leaders, who ended their summit yesterday, announced the creation of a joint military force to be stationed, according to conference sources, in Syria. They also called on other Middle East States to review their relations with Washington because of its support for the Israelis. The meeting . coincided with renewed efforts by President Carter to break the deadlock between the Israelis and Egyptians over the question of Palestinian autonomy. The P.L.O. rejects the autonomy talks, saying it will discuss only the question of a Palestinian State. The front leaders asked

Colonel Gaaaffi' to contact Moscow to discuss deepening relations and greater political and military backing. i Moscow is already a big [supplier of - weapons- to Syria, Libya, and South Yemen. The Arab hard-liners did not announce any new measures against Egypt for breaking ranks and signing its peace treaty with Israel; but they said they ’ would back Egyptian opposition groups who could bring the country' “back to the Arab nation.” They called on Jordan to help the front in its confrontation with the Israelis by allowing Palestinian guer- , rillas to strike against the I Jewish State from Jordanian 'soil. '/• •