Soviets Rebuff Arabs on Nuclear Issue

A senior Soviet diplomat said Tuesday that his government will not support demands by Arab nations that a ban on chemical warfare be linked to a ban on nuclear weapons.

Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor P. Karpov told a news conference that he hopes a 145-nation conference on banning chemical warfare will reach a consensus today, the closing day of the conference.

Asked whether the linkage issue will prevent a general agreement, Karpov replied, “This conference is doomed for success.”

The conference was called at the urging of President Reagan in an effort to give impetus to a 40-nation conference on chemical weapons that has been going on for several years in Geneva as well as to reaffirm a 1925 international agreement banning the use of chemical weapons. The latter reason was made urgent by the reported heavy use of poison gas by Iraq in its war against Iran, which ended in a cease-fire last year.

Most of the Arab states represented here, arguing that Israel has chemical as well as nuclear weapons, have insisted that they not be asked to give up chemical weapons unless Israel agrees to sign the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The United States has been against linking chemical and nuclear weapons on grounds that they are unrelated and that to link them would indefinitely delay a chemical weapons accord.