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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, May 1, 1981
Page 7
6. Supports and contributes to worldwide terrorism. (The three
pillars of world terrorism are the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the PLO.)
7. Declares its total hatred of and opposition to the United States.
What, say the Israelis, is there to talk about between Europe and the PLO?
There can be no "instant" or "quick fix" solutions to the Mideast dilemma,
says Jerusalem. There must first be carefully thought-out "approaches"
to solutions. (As Mr. Armstrong has pointed out, the Egyptians and Is
raelis tried a new "give" approach as the basis of their relationship.)
Meanwhile, the "old approach"--preparing for war--is being fed by enormous
shipments of arms, and not just by the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Europeans are trafficking in arms to the hilt. Iraq is the biggest
beneficiary--a country that launched a war upon its neighbor, Iran.
France has arms deals planned or in the works with Arab states worth a
staggering total of $22 billion. Specifically, Paris is supplying Iraq
with $3 billion of arms and electronics. Italy has also signed an arms
deal with Iraq worth $2 billion. Both France and Italy are dependent
upon Iraq oil shipments. Notes Middle East analyst Prittie:
"The abject readiness of Western countries to supply a blatantly obvious
agressor in time of war is merely the most deplorable feature of the
situation.... Arms-supply to the Middle East has become a vicious circle
spiralling like a tornado. Arms supplied to 'extreme' regimes like Iraq's
makes it necessary to send yet more arms to the 'moderate' Arab states
like Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Then Israel, inevitably, asks for more arms
as huge arsenals are built up opposite all of its frontiers. That leads,
once more, to fresh demands for arms from oil-rich states which are unable
to find sufficient productive uses for their huge financial surpluses.
Even the little Gulf Emirates are now arming to the teeth....What, then,
lies ahead? A worsening situation, for sure, with nuclear weapons quite
possibly next on the list."
·Israel is believed to have begun stockpiling nuclear weapons as early as
1974. Iraq, thanks to reactors and nuclear laboratories supplied by the
French and the Italians, may be making nuclear weapons now. Pakistan is
only months away from testing its "device." Thus, the Mideast arms race
is turning nuclear. Business Week reported a year ago in its April 14,
1980 issue:
"1980 looks as if it will become the year when the arms race in the
Middle East turns openly nuclear. Although all nations in the area
publicly disavow any intention to be the first to produce atomic weapons,
the potential of a number of them to do so is picking up speed. Evidence
is mounting, too, that some oil producers have begun to exact what Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein calls 'a strategic price'--transfer of Western
nuclear know-how--in exchange for their own key strategic commodity. On
the fringes of the region, moreover, Pakistan's military government
appears little more than a year to 18 months from achieving the capacity
to detonate the Islamic world's first nuclear test device."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau