Soviets M.E. plan

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 8

Soviets M.E. plan

NZPA-Reuter Moscow President Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union yesterday vigorously renewed Moscow’s calls for an international conference on the Middle East, which he said had become the scene of increasing tension. At a dinner for the North Yemeni leader, Ali Abdullah

Saleh. Mr Brezhnev restated Moscow's call for an international conference which would include the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel, and Arab States. Mr Brezhnev, whose speech was reported by the official Tass agency, said the single aim of the Soviet proposal, first advanced last February, was to move “from dead centre” the issue

; of what he described as a i just and all-embracing I Middle East settlement.

He attacked American support for Israel in the region which he said was a policy which meant "blood, destruction and sorrow” for the Arabs.

His renewed call for an international meeting, coupled with the stinging attack on American policy in the region, suggested that Moscow believed the chances of winning attention for the largely ignored Soviet proposal had improved after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Londonbased Arabic newspaper "AlArab" has said that it has an exclusive report that the Soviet Union has set up an early warning and radar base' in Eritrea near the Sudanese border.

It quoted reliable sources as saying the base had been established across the border from a Sudanese Army headquarters after the developments which began with the assassination of President Sadat and the despatch of two American radar aircraft to Egypt.