Ratifications of I.N.F. pact begin

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 8

Ratifications of I.N.F. pact begin

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States Senate has begun consideration of the new Intermedi-ate-Range Nuclear Forces (1.N.F.) Treaty amid expectations it will be approved after what could be a bruising fight with anti-Soviet conservatives.

The Soviet parliament, the Supreme Soviet, yesterday began considering the I.N.F. pact for ratification, the offical Tass news agency reported. As hearings opened before the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, top Reagan Administration officials strongly defended the super-Power accord as enhancing United States and N.A.T.O. security. Critics unleashed a

campaign of attacks and qualifying amendments widely viewed as designed to undermine the entire spectrum of United StatesSoviet arms control progress.

“This treaty is an engraved invitation to cheat,” charged a Republican, Jesse Helms, leader of the conservative assault on the pact, which is intended to scrap American and Soviet missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 km. Mr Helms claimed to have “highly classified information” indicating a serious Soviet violation of the treaty, which was only signed by President Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, at their summit last December and has yet to

take effect. He gave no details. A letter from the Central Intelligence Agency’s director, William Webster, made public, while confirming that Helm’s material was substantively accurate, warned that “by themselves (the data) do not constitute a sufficient basis on which to draw conclusions about the over-all monitorability of the treaty.” The Senate Minority leader, Robert Dole, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who supports the pact, advocated an amendment insisting the United States “suspend our treaty obligations or take some proportionate response” in case of a Soviet violation.