Soviets Still Seek Arms Pacts With U.S.

The Soviet Union will continue to seek arms control agreements with the United States despite the growing scandal over Washington’s secret arms shipments to Iran, a senior Soviet official said Thursday.

The statement, by Gennady I. Gerasimov, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, contrasted with Soviet newspaper commentaries suggesting that President Reagan can no longer be trusted after the incident involving Iran.

Gerasimov’s statement apparently reflected the thinking of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other top officials who have placed a high priority on nuclear arms reduction.

“The U.S. Administration is clearly facing a confidence gap,” Gerasimov told reporters at a briefing. “There are numerous difficulties . . . but at the same time we believe the struggle for peace is too serious a problem--an eternal problem--so that it can’t give way to scandals, no matter how big they are.”

Unwilling to Wait

He said the Soviet Union is not willing to wait until Reagan’s successor takes office in 1989 for accords on the reduction of nuclear weapons.

“We believe time should not be lost,” Gerasimov said, “not because we cannot wait another two years, but because military technology is developing rapidly, and if we don’t stop it now then it will be even harder two years later.”

At the same time, he sharply criticized the United States for surpassing the arms limitations established in the unratified 1979 strategic arms limitation treaty known as SALT II and said Moscow will no longer be bound by the terms of that treaty.

“This step shows the United States is not interested in curbing the arms race but is still pursuing the phantom of military superiority,” Gerasimov said.

Soviet countermeasures, he said, will not copy the American decision to add another B-52 bomber armed with cruise missiles to its strategic nuclear arsenal.

‘Not the Last Word’

“The Soviet Union regards the American buildup with great seriousness and will have to take adequate, sufficient measures,” Gerasimov said. “This is not the last word on this issue from the Soviet side.”

His briefing followed a sharp attack in Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, dealing with the disclosures of secret arms shipments to Iran and the diversion of funds to rebel forces in Nicaragua.

Pravda commentator Vitaly Gan said in an article filed from Washington: “You can say that the extreme violations of legality, the political corruption and moral degradation that have come to light in the highest echelons of power in the United States will go into the country’s history as another sordid symbol of the morals that exist here.

“Convinced of its impunity and having chosen duplicity as a method of implementing its policy, the Washington Administration has demonstrated vividly the danger to peace posed by its intrigues and neo-globalist ambitions.”

Working Sessions Continue

Still, Gerasimov noted that Soviet and U.S. arms negotiators are continuing with “working sessions” in Geneva and have scheduled a seventh round of talks starting Jan. 15.

“We are preparing for fruitful work at the next round of meetings,” Gerasimov said.

He said the Americans refused to start a new round of negotiations in early December, as the Soviets had proposed.

Western observers said the Soviet Union has shown restraint by not mounting a full-scale anti-American campaign based on the Iranian controversy.

Although there have been some sharp attacks on Reagan in the official press, Soviet propagandists generally have preferred to quote criticism by American and West European newspapers.

“The Kremlin is getting a free ride on this one,” a Western diplomat said.