Moscow Warns U.S. Against Direct Military Role in Nicaragua

The Soviet Union on Tuesday warned the United States against taking a direct military role in the Nicaraguan civil war and charged that recent U.S. moves in Central America are “extremely serious.”

The warning was issued by Boris D. Pyadyshev, a senior Foreign Ministry official, at a news briefing. He was commenting on reports that U.S. helicopters transported Honduran troops to a border region where Nicaraguan government forces had crossed the frontier in pursuit of American-backed rebel forces.

Tass, the official Soviet news agency, cited Nicaraguan charges that U.S. planes had bombed two Nicaraguan border towns over the weekend. It accused Washington of engaging in “international terrorism.” U.S. officials have denied any such American raids, and Managua later said only that the planes came from Honduras.

‘Further Risky Steps’

Pyadyshev said: “We assess the situation around Nicaragua as extremely serious. We cannot exclude the possibility that the United States will take further risky steps.”

U.S. officials, he said, are escalating tension in Central America in an attempt to divert attention from the political uproar over secret arms shipments to Iran.

“It is quite possible they will use weapons,” he said. “We warn the United States against such steps and urge it to put aside such plans and intentions.”

Washington, he said, is “playing with fire.”

Earlier in the day, the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said the United States stands at the brink of war with Nicaragua.

In a commentary written by Vitaly Korionov, Pravda said the reported bombing of Nicaraguan towns was a first step on the road to direct U.S. involvement in the guerrilla war.

“Washington . . . hangs dangerously on a knife edge,” the commentary said. “It may soon escalate an ‘undeclared war’ on Nicaragua into an open intrusion into that country.”

Pyadyshev said the Soviet Foreign Ministry has filed a protest with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as the result of a recent statement by Elliott Abrams, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for inter-American affairs.

Abrams had said that the Soviet Union has penetrated Latin America. Pyadyshev denounced the statement as a “crude distortion.”

“Of course, this is intolerable,” Pyadyshev said, “and we categorically reject these claims.”