THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 15 MAY 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006015110
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: May 15, 1976

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The President's Daily Brief
May 15, 1976
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/19 : CIA-RDP79T00936A013400010003-5
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 5B( 11(1)13)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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May 15, 1976
Table of Contents
Lebanon: Prime Minister Karami yesterday called for still an-
other cease-fire. (Page 1)
USSR-Syria-Lebanon: Moscow has become increasingly unhappy with
Syria's policy in Lebanon. (Page 2)
USSR: Food shortages and grumbling by citizens continue.
(Page 3)
Syria: Damascus is experiencing a severe foreign exchange
squeeze that is imposing some foreign policy constraints.
(Page 3)
Jordan-UK: King Husayn remains reluctant to buy Britain's sur-
face-to-air missile system as an alternative to US and
Soviet systems. (Page 4)
Notes: USSR-US; India-Pakistan; US-Poland (Pages 5 and 6)
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559762. 5-76
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LEBANON: Prime Minis-
ter Karami yesterday
called for still an-
other cease-fire. The
latest accord, negoti-
ated by the Lebanese-
Syrian-Palestinian
"higher military com-
mittee," began to go
into effect late last
night.
The cease-fire appears to have be-
gun to take hold in the Tripoli
area, where the contending factions
reportedly have agreed to withdraw
from the city and form a joint
force to patrol the truce.
If the new cease-fire fails to
hold, Syria probably will push
ahead with its effort to destroy
the military capability of the
Lebanese leftist a an
rou s
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--continued
1
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USSR-SYRIA-LEBANON:
Moscow has become in-
creasingly unhappy with
Syria's policy in Leba-
non.
the first time claimed to have
pushed from Muslim-controlled east-
ern Lebanon to a point where they
command the heights overlooking
the town of Farayya. This would
be the leftists' deepest penetra-
tion into the Christian core area
of the country.
An important Soviet Foreign Minis-
try official earlier this week
said that although the USSR sup-
ported Syrian mediation "in prin-
ciple," Moscow did not approve the
manner in which it has been con-
ducted. He said that Syrian ini-
tiatives should have been neutral,
and indicated that Moscow was
clearly uncomfortable with Syrian
advocacy of the candidacy of presi-
dent-elect Sarkis.
Soviet misgivings about Syrian pol-
icy stem in part from the dilemma
Moscow now faces in Lebanon--hav-
ing to walk a tightrope between
the Syrian-backed Sarkis and So-
viet allies among the Lebanese
leftists and the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization. It also re-
flect Soviet concern that Washing-
ton's satisfaction with Damascus'
policy in Lebanon may portend fur-
ther US-Syrian exchanges on a Mid-
dle East settlement.
2
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USSR: Last year's har-
vest failure is increas-
ingly affecting food
supplies, but we antic-
ipate an easing by early
summer. Citizens are
grumbling, but the only
report of civil unrest
concerns a work slow-
down by stevedores in
the Baltic seaport of
Riga--through which
food supplies continue
to be exported--to pro-
test food shortages.
SYRIA: Damascus is ex-
periencing a severe for-
eign exchange squeeze
that is imposing some
foreign policy con-
straints.
In rural areas severe shortages of
meat and sausage, butter, milk,
sugar, eggs, rice, flour, and
noodles are being noted in state
retail outlets with increasing
frequency. Staple vegetables--
potatoes, cabbage, and onions--are
available only in collective farm
markets at unusually high prices.
Bread supplies appear to be gener-
ally adequate, although there are
a growing number of reports that
bread is of poor quality.
Urban residents are also becoming
more aware of shortages. Embassy
officers have noted meat shortages
in a few cities but have generally
found that supplies of most foods,
including bread, are "basically
adequate." Moscow shoppers were
irate that no special efforts were
made to stock stores for May Day.
Shortages of vegetables and dairy
products should ease as the new
crop becomes available in July or
August. Production of meat, how-
ever, will continue at reduced lev-
els for the balance of the year.
Moscow could double last year's
imports of 500,000 tons of meat to
augment domestic supplies, but so
far--other than unknown amounts of
meat purchased from East Europe--
the Soviets have contracted for
only small quantities of mutton
and beef from New Zealand.
A temporary suspension of subsidy
payments by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
and other Arab donors, the recent
cut-off of oil pipeline transit
payments by Iraq, and increasing
3
--continued
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JORDAN-UK: King Husayn
remains cool to the
British offer to sell
Jordan the Rapier sur-
face-to-air missile
system as an alterna-
tive to the US Hawk
and to a Soviet missile
system.
costs of Syrian involvement in Leb-
anon have contributed to the pres-
ent difficulty. The Saudis and
Kuwaitis, by withholding aid pay-
ments, are pressing Damascus to
bury the hatchet with Cairo.
The Soviets may try to exploit the
situation by offering economic as-
sistance in return for greater use
of Syria's ports for their Mediter-
ranean Fleet. The US embassy in
Damascus believes that the Syrians
would never agree to allow the So-
viets to establish a naval base
there.
The Syrians might agree, however,
to allow the Soviets to use facil-
ities at Latakia for storing spare
parts and naval munitions, partic-
ularly if the Soviets offer to
stretch out payment terms on past
Soviet-Syrian arms deals.
Husayn toldr
/it is too
late for Jordan to consider any but
the Soviet alternative to the Hawk.
The King believes that only the
Soviet Union and the US are able
to provide Jordan with what it
wants--"a complete system and nec-
cessary back-up." A Soviet air
force delegation is scheduled to
arrive in Amman on Monday to dis-
cuss a possible deal for the So-
viet system.
In spite of King Husayn's negative
remarks, Jordan apparently has not
completely ruled out the possibil-
ity of buying the Rapier system.
Husayn has agreed to a meeting be-
tween his military representatives
and a team of British experts to-
day.
4
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An authoritative Soviet
article on Thursday
lashed out at the "un-
bridled" anti-Cuban cam-
paign that it said was
being waged by certain
US officials and ele-
ments of the US news
media.
India and Pakistan an-
nounced yesterday that
they have agreed to re-
sume diplomatic rela-
tions, severed during
their 1971 war.
NOTES
The article, in Pravda, may be a
concession to Havana following
Cuban Defense Minister Raul Cas-
tro's recent visit to the USSR.
The Soviets reportedly turned
down Castro's request for more
sophisticated weapons, but they
may have agreed to step up their
propaganda attacks against US
policy toward Cuba.
Agreement was also reached to re-
store civil air links, overflights,
and rail communications. The new
agreements are part of a general
lowering of South Asian tensions
in recent weeks, including a deci-
sion by China and India to resume
ambassadorial-level relations and
a commitment by Pakistan and Af-
ghanistan to hold a summit confer-
ence soon. The exception is Ban-
gladesh's problems with India, par-
ticularly over distribution of
water from the Ganges River.
--continued
5
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The Polish Foreign Min-
istry has warned the US
embassy in Warsaw that
a group of extreme left-
ists or anarchists may
be preparing unspecified
actions against US dip-
lomatic missions in East-
ern Europe later this
month.
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The Poles have obtained informa-
tion about a group
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legedly wants to create an inci-
dent sometime around May 20 to
dramatize its view that the USSR
and the East Europeans are "be-
traying the revolution" by main-
taining close relations with the
United States.
A Foreign Ministry official said
increased security measures, in-
cluding a doubled guard at the US
embassy, would be put into effect
through the end of May. He did
not say whether Warsaw had passed
this information to other East
European capitals.
6
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