Soviets Discuss Mideast With Syria and Libya

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Libya’s No. 2 man today to discuss tensions in the Middle East, and Syria’s vice president arrived in Moscow for talks with Kremlin officials.

The meetings with two of the Soviet Union’s Mideast allies followed reports that Gorbachev said any attack by Israel or the United States on Syria or the PLO would have “incalculable consequences.”

Denis Healey, foreign affairs spokesman for the Britain’s opposition Labor Party, said Gorbachev made the remark Monday during a Kremlin meeting with British members of Parliament.

Abdel-Salam Jalloud, No. 2 to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, met with Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov and then with Gorbachev in the first top-level discussions between the Soviets and Libyans since since the U.S. bombing raids on Libya April 15.

No Details in Tass

Tass press agency announced the meetings, but gave no details. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Lomeiko said the American raids were discussed during talks which would “undoubtedly contribute to strengthening friendship and solidarity” between the Soviet Union and Libya.

Lomeiko told a news conference that talks with Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who arrived in Moscow today, are taking place at a time of growing tension in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean.

The United States has accused Libya and Syria of aiding terrorists and Israel has recently voiced concern at what it said were Syrian attempts to improve its military position in Lebanon.

Both Syria and Israel have denied any intention to go to war. But President Hafez Assad of Syria said in a speech Monday that the United States and Israel were threatening to turn the world into a battlefield by using counter-terrorism as a pretext for armed attacks. Assad, speaking during a visit to Greece, said Syria was a victim, not a sponsor, of terrorism.