Syria’s Foreign Minister, in a major address here tonight, hinted that Syria might intervene militarily to prevent any partition of Lebanon, and that it might take unspecified military action to undermine the recent Egyptian‐Israeli agreement on Sinai.
The speech by the minister, Abdel Halim Khaddam, came as the climax of ceremonies at the Damascus University amphitheater tonight in observance of the fifth anniversary of President Hafez al‐Assad’s accession to power in Syria. General Assad did not appear.
In the strongest official suggestion thus far that Syria might intervene actively in her neighbor Arab nation, which has been racked by civil strife, Mr. Khaddam said, according to an unofficial translation of his speech: “If Lebanon is subject to division, we shall face this as the most serious plot the Arab nation is facing and shall stand by Lebanon with all means to foil this plot.”
This was an apparent reference to continued speculation in recent weeks that Lebanon might eventually be divided between its warring Moslem and Christian factions. Syria’s public position during the months of fighting in Beirut—now in a lull—has been that Lebanon should remain united, and Mr. Khaddam himself has spent several weeks in Beirut attempting to mediate between the factions.
Tonight, Mr. Khaddam, in Syria’s first suggestion that she might resort to violent means to break down the latest Sinai accord, told an enthusiastic audience of Damascus dignitaries: “We will bring down the Sinai agreement even if we have to shed blood for it.”
Mr. Khaddam and other Syrian officials have been denouncing the agreement as an Egyptian betrayal of the Arab cause. Syria’s fervently antiIsraeli Government feels that the agreement’s effect was, as it is continually put here, “to take Egypt out of the battle,” leaving Syria in a more vulnerable position toward Israel.
Tonight Mr. Khaddam said that by signing the agreement Egypt had “thrown itself into a swamp, switching completely from confronting the enemy to helping him.”
“We will shed sweat and blood” to undercut the accord, the Foreign Minister said, although he gave no indication of what sort of action Syria might contemplate,
In the two and a half months since the agreement was reached, Syria has been im‐ proving its relations with itst Arab neighbor Iraq and has been consolidating its relationships with Jordan and other Arab states whose role would be important in any future Arab‐Israeli conflict.
After Mr. Khaddam left the rostrum amid jubilant applause, a lesser figure in Syria’s ruling left‐wing Baath Party, who was not immediately identified, took the podium and said: “I assure; you, comrades, that by the time of the anniversary next year of the corrective movement, we will have accomplished another October.”
Mr. Khaddam did not refer in his speech to the United Nations peace‐keeping force deployed on the Syrian side of the disengagement line on the Golan Heights.
The mandate of the United Nations troops expires at the end of this month, and Syria has not announced whether will renew it. A senior Foreign Ministry official said in an interview a few days ago that the Government had not yet made a decision on the matter.
It is widely thought in the Middle East that removal of the United Nations force would increase the chances of military clashes along the Syrian‐Israeli front.
There was no immediate explanation of why President Assad did not appear at this evening’s ceremonies, which followed the distribution of free candies to the Damascus populace.
