HAIG SAYS U.S. SEEKS CONSENSUS STRATEGY IN MIDEAST REGION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640091-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 91
• Publication Date: March 20, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640091-0
Arrrax AnyARED
ON PAGE A
HAIG SAYS 11.5. SEEKS
CONSENSUS STRATEGY
IN MIDEAST REGION
, ?
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
_ Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 19 ? Secretary
of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. said today
that the Reagan Administration would
try to develop a strategic "consensus", to
counter the Soviet Union in an area
'stretching from Pakistan to Egypt and in-
cluding such disparate nations as Tur-
key, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Mr. Haig also held
out the possibility of improved relations
with Iraq, one of the most anti-Israel na-
tions in the region, and one that has been
closely identified with the Soviet Union in
the past. He said Washington had noted
"some shift" in Iraqi policy, caused, in
part, be said, by "a greater sense of con-
cern about the behavior of Soviet imperi-
alism in the Middle Eastern area."
Mr. Haig's stress on a "strategic con-
sensus" in the region is Consistent with
the efforts made by the Carter Adminis-
tration after the Soviet intervention in Af-
ghanistan in December 1979. But Mr.
Haig's remarks seemed to suggest a
greater stress on persuading the Arabs
and Israel, as well as Pakistan and Tur-
key, to join in some kind of unofficial and
nonspecific ?'arrangement to counter
Soviet influence in the region. In his re-
marks, he did not seem to be suggesting
the establishment of7'any kind of struc-
tured alliance ? he described the ar-,
rangernent as a .?consensus of strategic
concerns" ? but implied a hciPe that key
nations in the region would recognize that
the Soviet Union represented a .serious
threat to their interests and would there-
fore see the need to .cooperate with the
United States....' '
Fears of a Conflict With Cuba
Besides the'Middle East; the questions
posed to Mr. Haig by the committee dealt
mostly with the senators.' concerns over'
the possibility, ithat the United' States
'might become involved in a conflict with
Cuba over future Cuban arms deliveries
to leftists in El Salvador. ,- ? ?
Their apprehension, particularly
, among the committee's Democrats, was
prompted by testimony yesterday from
I Walter J. Stoessel Jr.,;-the Under Secre-
NEW YORK TIMES
20 MARCH 1981
tary of State for Political Affairs, who"'
said he would not rule out the possibility
of military action if Cuba attempted to ,
step up delivery of arms. Mr. Stoessel
added that the flow of weapons had
stowed in recent weeks.
Today Mr. Haig tried to maintain the
Administration's deliberate- ambiguity
on the question.
Mthtary Force Not Excluded
To keep the Cubans off guard, he said,
it would be wrong to exclude the Use of
military actions at some future time.
"I think the American people antici-
pate that this Administration is going to
deal with this longstanding question with
clarity of thought, with firmness in pur-
pose," he said of the problem of coping
with subversive activities by Cuba in
other countries. "That would of necesafty
include consideration of a whole range of
American assets."
On the other hand, he stressed that "no
decisions have been made; the President
has not arrived at any policy; none has
been specifically recommended to him."
To ease Senate concerns he said that
while military force could not be exclud-
ed, he did not want anyone to believe that
"worst-case scenarios are being nurtured
by some special groups within the Admin-
istration."
, Yesterday, in testifying before the
I House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr.
Haig touched on his plan to bring about a
sense of common purpose in the Middle
East. "We feel it is fundamentally impor-
tant," he said, "to begin to develop a con-
sensus of strategic concerns throughout
the region among Arab and Jew and to be
sure that the overriding danger of Soviet
inroads into this area are not over-
looked."
In recent weeks Mr. Haig has indicated
privately and publicly that he wants to
give priority to security questions in the
Middle East and the Persian Gulf re-
gions, even while not rejecting the idea of
reviving peace talks. He plans to visit
Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia
early next month and is expected to de-
velop these themes at greater length
then. ? -
t
Pakistan of Particular Concern
Today he indicated that he wanted to
bring Pakistan and Turkey into his
strategic "consensus." In response to a
question he said it was in the American
interest to establish "a consensus, in the
strategic regional sense, among. the
states of the area, stretching from Paki-
stan to the east, to Egypt to the West, in-
cluding Turkey, Israel and the other
threatened states."
Pakistan, bordering on Afghanistan,
where some
thought by Washington to pose a threat to
the Persian Gulf region, is of particular
concern -to the Reagan Administration,
Mr. Haig said. Pakistan receives no
American aid, even thought it is ostensi-
bly an American ally. Pakistan's clan-
destine nuclear weapons program pikes
It ineligible for assistance under current
American law.
Mr. Haig told Senator Alan Cranston,
Democrat of California, who is deeply
concerned about stopping the nuclear
programs iraPalcistan and Iraq, that "it is
my belief that you get more by removing
the insecurities that foster the nuclear
thirst" among countries like Pakistan.
He said ' hd hoped Congress would
modify the law so that Washington can
"re-establish a dialogue of trust and con-
fidence" with Pakistan. The Carter Ad-
ministration had planned to seek changes
in the law but dropped the idea when
Pakistan's leader rejected a the offer of a
two-year MOO million aid package as
"peanuts."
Signs of a Shift in Iraq
As to Iraq, which has no formal diplo-
matic ties with the United States because
of Washington's support for Israel, M.
Haig said, "We see some shift in the Iraqi
attitude ? a greater concern on the parr
of the Iraqi leadership, perhaps as a re-
sult of the conflict with Iran, or changes
that have occurred in Iraq, or perhaps as
the result of recent events in Afghani-
stan, a greater sense of concern about the
behavior of Soviet imperialism in the
Middle Eastern area." -
"I think we're going to have to assess
very carefully in the period ahead and not
find ourselves in an irreversible set of
relationships," he said. He said Iraq
might want to pursue a more moderate
course in nuclear policy and toward the
West.
This has been the general view of many
Western experts for more than a year,
but so far Iraq has rejected otters of im-
proved ties to Washington even though its
relations with Moscow are strained.
It was learned that the State Depart-
ment is considering sending a' special
envoy next month to Iraq, Syria and
Lebanon to report on Mr. Haig's Middle
Eastern trip. Another envoy will be sent
to the Persian Gulf states. ,
? Equivocal on El Salvador .. r -
On El Salvador, Mr. Hp ig was equivo-
cal about the overall prospects.
Although there has been a slowdown in
the arms flow through Nicaragua to El,
.ird
Salvador, e - ,
there were also con-
'thrum intelligence reports" that Nicara-
gua was alternative mutes into
El Salvador.
"So it's essentially a mixed situation
which is more positive than negative but
which still requires the most careful and
continuing assessment and scrutiny," he
said. ? . ? "
Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island,
the ranking Democrat on the committee,
pressed Mr. Haig to explain his remarks
yesterday that there was a theory that
four American churchmen murdered
in El Salvador in December had tried to
rwt through .4 roadblock or were per-.
COM=
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640091-0
ceived as having done so.
He said that in testifying before the
House Foreign Affairs Commitee he had
given "the most prominent theory" on
what happened. He said that an autopsy
of one of the victims showed that pieces of
the windshield had been "propelled into
her body by the bullet."
Times of Turmoil
"Someone constructed the theory," he
said, "that either they were perceived or
had been actually running the road-
block." ...4?,? t_
"Now in times of turmoil, and diffiCul-
ty, and crisis, and warfare, and young
people are given arms, they could have
misread the mere traveling of that party
down that road as an effort to run a road-
block and could have fired into the vehi-
de, killed one or more of the passengers .
and panicked, killed the rest and tried to
dispose of them," he said. "I laid that out
as one of the prominent theories of what
might have happened. ?I hope it doesn't
get distorted or perverted emotionally_
and incorrectly."
He denied that he meant to imply, he be-
lieved the women had tried to violate Sal-
vadoran laws. He also said he had not.
meant to suggest that there was a possi-
bility they had fired back at the killers.
In Ossining, N.Y., Sister Martha
Bourne of the Maryknoll Sisters said the:
community had not heard anything from-
its own sources in El Salvador that would.
indicate the nuns were running a road-
block. "I can't imagine anybody in their'
right mind would have tried to do that,7.
she said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640091-0