Shimon Peres, chairman of the Labor Party, warned yesterday of two major threats to stability in the Middle East and the world as a whole. One is nuclear capability “in the hands of the most irresponsible elements in the Mideast” and the other is the prospect of oil shortages within the Soviet Union that could propel it toward further aggression in the region, Peres told 500 delegates attending the seventh plenary assembly of the World Jewish Congress here.
“Within five to ten years, a nuclear capability will be in the hands of the most irresponsible elements in the Mideast, such as Libya’s (Col. Muammar) Qaddafi, whom President Sadat of Egypt pronounced mentally unbalanced, and the leaders of Iraq who went to war against Iran for glory,” Peres said.
Observing that an oil shortage might develop in the USSR within five years, Peres declared: “Russia’s strategy is focussed upon the Persian Gulf which contains no less than half of the world’s oil deposits. The Soviets will surely exploit every social and economic difference, every ethnic clash within the Arab world to pave a better path on the road to Soviet control of the region.”
He observed that “The huge amounts of Arab petrodollars have not closed but widened the gap between rich and poor in the Arab world. The ethnic differences, religious schisms and national rivalries that have torn apart the Arab world and pose so ominous a threat to world peace have nothing to do with Israel.”
GERMANY URGED TO HALT ARMS SALE TO SAUDIS
Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, addressing another session of the WJC assembly, urged “the voices of conscience” in West Germany to block the Bonn government’s proposed sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. “German weapons being used once again to endanger the lives of Jews, this time in their own State, is unconscionable,” Shamir said. He rejected the idea that Saudi Arabia is a “moderate” Arab state and said Israel regarded it as “among Israel’s staunchest enemies.”
He noted that Saudi Arabia has called for a holy war against Israel, that it denounced the Camp David agreements and that it continued to finance terrorism by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Shamir criticized the Western European countries for refusing to support Camp David. He expressed confidence that the Reagan Administration would maintain what he called “the basic ties of friendship between the U.S. and Israel, despite normal differences of opinion.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
