‘Punitive’ U.S. Attacks Decried by Gorbachev

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday condemned the U.S. strikes against Libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra as “punitive action planned and conceived in advance” and declared Soviet “solidarity” with Libya.

“This policy is provoking regional conflicts and jeopardizing international peace and security,” Gorbachev said. “It is directed against all independent peoples and contravenes the interests of the American people as well.

“We resolutely denounce the aggressive anti-Libyan actions of the U.S.A.,” the Communist Party general secretary said. “The Soviet Union is in solidarity with the Libyan people, standing up for their sacred right to freedom and independence from imperialist encroachments.”

Gorbachev’s condemnation of the U.S. actions came in a speech at a Kremlin dinner for visiting Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid.

The Soviet leader said Washington is “not stinting words” to justify the fighting, which erupted over the disputed Gulf of Sidra on Monday. U.S. warplanes attacked Libyan patrol boats and a missile site armed with Soviet surface-to-air weapons.

‘Punitive Operation’

“Facts irrefutably show, however, that it is not an unexpected incident but a punitive operation conceived and planned in advance,” he said, adding that the presence of U.S. ships off the Libyan coast has become permanent.

Gorbachev described as “economic terror” the punitive economic sanctions imposed on Libya by the United States after the Arab terrorist attacks at airports in Rome and Vienna last December that left 20 people dead, including four terrorists.

President Reagan accused the Libyan government of Col. Moammar Kadafi of supporting the breakaway Palestinian terror group of Abu Nidal, which is believed responsible for the attacks.

Gorbachev’s remarks were his first public statement on the U.S. exercises, which Washington said were aimed at establishing its right to navigation in the Gulf of Sidra.

Clashes in the Past

The United States, as well as the Soviet Union, consider the gulf international waters. Libya, however, claims the gulf is its possession and has clashed in the past with U.S. forces over its waters.

In his speech, the Soviet leader also offered to withdraw the Soviet fleet from the Mediterranean if the United States pulled out its own warships.

He proposed that a regional Mediterranean conference should be held, similar to the 1975 European security and cooperation conference in Helsinki.