The Camp David Summit in the United States between President Carter and the leaders of Egypt and Israel has prompted a warning from Syria that it may conclude a defense agreement with the Soviet Union. It is the first time that Syria’s Ba’athist regime has apparently contemplated such a step, despite its long-standing relationship with Moscow.
The warning came from Syrian Foreign Minister Abdul Halim Khaddam when he arrived in Algiers on Wednesday as part of a tour of member-states of the anti-Sadat “Front of Steadfastness and Confrontation”. He had been in Moscow just a few days earlier where — at a banquet in the Syrian’s honors — the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr. Gromyko, had warned the United States against seeking military gains in areas near the Soviet frontiers. On his arrival in Algeria, Mr. Khaddam said that if reports of a projected American-Israeli security pact were to prove true, the Arabs should mobilize themselves and conclude military defense agreements with the Soviet Union. The Syrian Minister was welcomed by the Algerian Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Redha Malek. The two men discussed the Camp David Summit, which Mr. Khaddam described as a link in a chain of plots against the Arab Nation, requiring firm resistance by the Middle East hardline states.
