The Soviet Union and Syria said today in a joint statement that they deemed it necessary to counter Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. They also pledged to strengthen military cooperation.
The accord was disclosed in a communique published by the press agency Tass after a two-day visit by Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam of Syria. In a television interview before his departure on Friday, he expressed ”profound satisfaction” with his visit.
He said ”special attention” had been paid ”to the danger posed by the recent Israeli decision to annex the Golan Heights, and measures to counter these aggressive Israeli actions.”
Neither he nor the communique specified the measures. But it was noted that Mr. Khaddam had met not only with Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, but also with Marshal Nikolai V. Ogarkov, the chief of staff of the Soviet armed forces. The Soviet Union is Syria’s main arms supplier. Violation of U.N. Charter Seen
The joint communique described Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights on Dec. 14 as a ”gross violation” of the United Nations Charter and a ”grave threat to peace and security in the Middle East and all over the world.”
”The sides were unanimous that it was necessary to counter the dangerous development of the situation in that region,” the statement said.
Expressing satisfaction with the Sovi@et Syrian friendship treaty signed in October 1980, it said: ”Both sides confirmed their striving to continue to strengthen cooperation in all areas, including military matters.” The communique assailed the Israeli-American strategic cooperation pact, calling it a ”dangerous action, the consequences of which transcend the boundaries of the Middle East.”
Mr. Gromyko, in a luncheon speech delivered on Friday and published today, ridiculed the United States’ decision to suspend the arrangement after Israel’s annexation of Golan. U.S. Suspension Is Ridiculed ”Only a hopeless political simpleton can be fooled by the spectacle rai sed around the ‘suspension’ of this pact,” Mr. Gromyko said. ”It was arranged to deflect attention from the fact that Washington an d Tel Aviv have become direct co-participants in aggression.”
He described the annexation of Golan, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, as ”adventurism bordering in the future on political suicide.” He said Israel had been emboldened to take the step because of American support.
