Tentative Afghan Pact Is Reached : U.S.-Soviet Dispute on Arms Resupply Threatens Accord

The United States and the Soviet Union have reached tentative agreement on a plan to remove all Soviet troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, but the accord already threatens to founder because of a dispute over arms shipments to opposing sides in the Afghan conflict, Reagan Administration officials said Thursday.

The agreement calls for the Soviets to withdraw half of their 115,000-member army from Afghanistan by Aug. 15 and for the remaining troops to leave by Dec. 31, said the officials, who asked not to be named. In return, U.S.-backed moujahedeen resistance forces would agree not to harass the retreating Soviet army.

The pact also contains a controversial clause requiring the United States to end weapons shipments to the guerrillas once the Soviet troops begin to depart, even though Moscow would be under no similar obligation to stop supplying weapons to the Marxist government in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.

Would Violate Ban

In deciding earlier this week to support the tentative agreement, U.S. officials served notice to the Soviets that they intend to violate the prohibition on weapons shipments to the guerrillas until Moscow stops military aid to the Kabul government.

In turn, the Soviets said that they would criticize U.S. arms shipments to the resistance after the agreement is signed, but would not seek to stop them.

However, even before the agreement was completed, that promise appeared to weaken. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze late Thursday attacked the United States in a Moscow interview for planning to violate the agreement on ending arms shipments.

Accord ‘Came Loose’

“It was nailed down this morning,” one U.S. official said of the agreement, “and it came loose this afternoon.”

Before Thursday’s snags developed, American and Soviet officials had hoped to stage a formal signing ceremony for the agreement as early as today. A State Department spokesman said Thursday afternoon that an actual signing of an accord now appears “quite a ways off.”

It was not clear whether those snags posed a serious hurdle to an agreement, but White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Thursday that the Afghanistan talks were “in their final stages.” The Soviet Union also appears to remain intent on achieving a peace settlement, U.S. officials said.

In statements Thursday, the White House and the State Department said the United States is following a policy of “symmetry and balance” in the Afghan negotiations. The Americans, they said, “will continue our support as long as the Soviet Union continues their support” for the opposing forces.

“From our standpoint, we will continue sending supplies to our friends,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Thursday. “If the Soviets exercise restraint, we will exercise restraint.”

Shultz, on his way to the Middle East, made the comment to reporters on the flight from Washington to a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland.

Fitzwater said there has been no formal agreement because the Soviets “have not accepted that proposition.”

He did not address the earlier U.S. promise to end aid to the guerrillas once Soviet troops begin their pullout. Other U.S. sources said, however, that the Soviets rejected American attempts to alter that provision or to reach a separate agreement that would resolve the dispute over military aid.

The current difficulties do not hinge on the substance of an Afghan peace treaty, but on the niceties of diplomacy and international law. In essence, both sides are angling for graceful ways to back out of commitments--a Soviet promise to prop up the Kabul regime and a U.S. promise to end arms shipments to the guerrillas.

The maneuvering is complicated by the fact that the accord being negotiated in U.N.-mediated talks in Geneva is not formally between the superpowers, but a treaty between Afghanistan and Pakistan in which the United States and the Soviets act as guarantors.

Both the Kabul government and Pakistan, which serves as a staging area for CIA arms shipments to the resistance, must agree to key parts of any accord.

Under the proposed agreement, once Soviet troops begin leaving Afghanistan, Pakistan must seal its border to block future arms shipments to the U.S.-backed resistance. Several dozen international monitors would be stationed on the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier to check compliance with the provision.

Under the draft accord proposed this week, both the United States and Pakistan would be in technical violation of that provision if they organized further arms shipments to the resistance once Soviet troops begin their withdrawal.

Fitzwater said Thursday that President Reagan had telephoned Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq this week. Zia later said that Pakistan is ready to sign a treaty when the superpowers reach an agreement.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster contributed to this article from Shannon, Ireland.