Foreign Policy Backed by Democrats, Reagan Says

President Reagan, making no mention of the swirl of criticism about his Iran policy, told a dinner meeting of conservatives Tuesday that he sees “a new bipartisan consensus on foreign policy,” despite the coming Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate.

The President pointed out that Democrats supported his “Star Wars” missile defense system and that the Democratic-controlled House enacted aid to the Nicaraguan rebels and supported the Administration’s military strike against Libya earlier this year.

Reagan appealed to the incoming Congress, the first controlled by the Democrats in both houses during his Administration, to back his hard-line negotiating position with the Soviet Union on arms control.

‘Should Be Pillar’

“This should be a pillar of our new bipartisan consensus,” he said. “We will not give away in Washington what we are negotiating over in Geneva.”

The absence of any comment about the Administration’s secret shipments of arms to Iran was especially noticeable in front of this crowd of conservative stalwarts, many of them Reagan backers for decades. Many conservatives have been especially critical of Reagan’s secret Iranian connection, regarding it as a sellout of the Administration’s stand against negotiating with terrorists.

Also, congressional experts on both sides of the aisle are predicting a contentious two years ahead for Reagan as Democrats reassert themselves and challenge the White House on a range of foreign-policy issues, including arms control and the extent of funding for “Star Wars,” the Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

However, Reagan seemed content to forgo those problems for the evening and enjoy himself in the company of such fellow conservatives as William F. Buckley, editor of the National Review, and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The gathering was in honor of Buckley and the Ethics and Public Policy Center that he founded 10 years ago.

Angola, Nicaragua Cited

Reagan struck a responsive chord when he compared the Hungarian uprising against the Soviets in 1956 to rebel movements in Afghanistan, Angola and Nicaragua. He pledged that he would never turn his back on freedom fighters: “Not then. Not now. Not ever.”

Reagan also won applause for his insistence that Soviet regard for human rights is “a fundamental condition of true peace between us” and cannot be treated as a totally separate issue from arms control in negotiations.

Despite the apparent lack of progress in Geneva on arms control in the aftermath of his summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, Reagan sounded upbeat on the prospects for arms control.

“All of our proposals are still on the table, and we see no reason that our negotiating teams shouldn’t pick up where we left off,” he declared. “The Soviets have sent signals that they believe this, too.”