Israeli Policy on Retaliation Told by Peres : Premier Bars Attack on Libya but Not on Terrorist Bases There

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, underlining a policy of no sanctuary for terrorists, said Sunday that his government has ruled out military action against Libya but may decide to attack guerrilla bases in that country.

Responding to Israeli press reports that the Jerusalem government has decided not to retaliate against Libya for the Rome and Vienna airport killings, Peres said: “I distinguish between a state and a terroristic organization. . . . I’m not going to guarantee immunity to terrorists, no matter where they are.”

To emphasize the distinction, he said, “We didn’t strike Tunisia.” That was a reference to Israel’s October air raid on a Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis that killed more than 70 people, including some Tunisian civilians along with a number of PLO operatives.

Israel, Peres said, considers guerrilla camps to be “extraterritorial places.”

No Desire for War

“I don’t want to declare war against anybody, against any country,” Peres said. “I don’t think it is necessary.”

He called for international economic and political sanctions against Libya. However, only the United States has, so far, agreed to such measures. Most Western European nations have refused to impose sanctions.

Peres’ comments on the ABC-TV program “This Week With David Brinkley” highlighted a difference in approach between Israel and the United States concerning punitive action against terrorist attacks.

When the State Department hinted last week at possible military action against Libya, department spokesman Charles Redman said that instead of trying to target the organization responsible for a specific attack, Washington was considering the use of force against states that support terrorism.

Makes No Distinction

Israel, on the other hand, has frequently attacked PLO facilities in response to terrorism, although the Jerusalem government usually does not distinguish among Palestinian organizations and often retaliates against mainstream PLO facilities for attacks carried out by the rival Abu Nidal group.

Middle Eastern terrorism dominated the television network interview programs Sunday, with Libya’s mercurial leader Moammar Kadafi providing the most bizarre segment by answering reporters’ questions perched atop a green tractor dressed as an Arab farmer in a barley field that Libyan publicists said he was helping to plow.

Kadafi denied that Abu Nidal, blamed by U.S. and European officials for the Rome and Vienna airport attacks, lives in Libya. He also said there are no guerrilla bases in Libya but that if any Palestinian group sought to establish such a facility, it would be welcome.

He said that Soviet-supplied SAM-5 anti-aircraft missiles recently shipped to Libya are operational. And he said that Libyan suicide squads have already been sent to the United States to retaliate for any U.S. attack on Libya.

Kadafi, as heard on television in the United States, said: “If America can hit any place--these aircraft carriers and strategic bombers--then we can reach any place, not through aircraft carriers or bombers but through suicide groups.”

He also said that “an American ambassador” had contacted Libya “during the last few days” to suggest reducing Washington-Tripoli tensions. He said he did not know the name of the envoy.

Peres, two U.S. senators, former White House national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane and a State Department spokesman accused Kadafi of lying on almost every point.

‘No Such Contact’

State Department spokesman Daniel Lawler said the U.S. government is unaware of any diplomatic contact with Kadafi and that “no such contact has been authorized.”

“If a person orders (others) to kill, do you expect him to be so careful in telling the truth?” Peres said.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he doubts that there are Libyan suicide squads in the United States although Kadafi clearly wants to be able to launch terrorist attacks in this country.

Asked on the NBC-TV program “Meet the Press” if the U.S. government would be able to deal with Libyan-sponsored terrorism in the United States, Leahy said: “No, we’re not. We’re not prepared to deal adequately with terrorism in the Middle East and in Europe, and if we’re not prepared to deal adequately with it there, we certainly aren’t prepared to deal adequately here in the United States.”

‘Pretty General Support’

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted “pretty general support” in Congress for any sort of covert action against Kadafi.

“I don’t know how you can comment on public television on covert action,” Lugar said. “I would just simply say that I don’t sense any resistance to the President’s ideas with regard to undermining Kadafi.”

Ever since the Dec. 27 attacks in Rome and Vienna that killed 15 travelers, including five Americans, the Reagan Administration has conducted a concerted diplomatic campaign against Libya. U.S. officials say the attacks were carried out by the Abu Nidal group, a violent Palestinian splinter organization that was expelled in 1974 from the PLO for rejecting curbs on terrorism. But the United States blames Libya because, it says, Abu Nidal has his headquarters there and could not operate without Libyan help.

Ties With Syria

The emphasis on Libya ignores Abu Nidal’s ties with Syria, where the organization also maintains a base. Washington would like to bring Syria into the Middle East peace process and, probably for that reason, has muted its criticism of President Hafez Assad and the Damascus regime.

Peres joined in that approach. He said, “The Syrians . . . are a little bit more careful than the Libyans are, and recently Syria became even more careful than she used to be.”

McFarlane, in response to a question, said there are some elements of hypocrisy in the double standard applied to Syria and Libya.

‘Sign of the Times’

“These lines and distinctions are not easily drawn when, in a given circumstance, you face vulnerabilities today at the hands of a country (Syria) which clearly does espouse terrorism when it serves its purpose, and it’s part of the sign of the times and of this phenomenon that we aren’t entirely able always to draw clear distinctions on what the national interest really is,” said McFarlane.