Arab Leaders Rebuke Israel Over Emigration : Mideast: U.S. is blamed for providing the means to resettle Soviet Jews. The communique is long on hard-line rhetoric.

By NICK B. WILLIAMS Jr

May 31, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Arab leaders on Wednesday condemned the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel and the suppression of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, declaring the United States “primarily responsible” by giving the Israeli government the means to carry out its policies.

Winding up a three-day emergency meeting of the Arab League, host Iraq and the Palestine Liberation Organization drove the delegates to produce a communique long on hard-line rhetoric but lacking in firm plans for action.

The document accused the Israeli leadership of promoting policies of “aggression, terrorism and expansionism” in the West Bank and Gaza, and it declared that Jewish settlements in the territories constitute “a great danger to the Arab nation and an impudent violation of human rights.”

“The conference holds the United States primarily responsible for this, as it provides Israel with the military means, financial help and political cover without which it could not pursue these policies and defy so arrogantly the will of the international community,” the communique said.

Singling out the prospect of Soviet Jewish immigrants settling in the occupied territories, the 20-page communique--hammered out in five closed-door sessions since Monday--said that Arab nations will review their relations with countries that support the immigration program.

The rebuke to the United States marked a reversal for moderates, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who came to Baghdad determined to avoid confrontational language in the communique.

Egypt’s sponsorship of a proposal to make the Middle East free from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons was rejected, while Iraqi President Saddam Hussein won support for his insistence that Arab nations have the right to state-of-the-art weapons “to protect their security and sovereignty.”

Hussein, who corralled the summit as a platform for his pan-Arab political ambitions, set the tone with a tough address to the opening session Monday night. He denounced U.S. support of the Israeli government, referring at one point to “imperialist America” and declaring, “As Arabs, we are the targets of these American policies, in the core of our security and interests.”

He repeated his vow to retaliate with “whatever weapons of total destruction we have” if Israel attacks Iraqi targets with nuclear or chemical weapons. Western diplomats here say Hussein appears convinced such an attack is possible.

But the focus of the final document centered on the issue of Soviet emigration and the intifada , or Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. The Arab leaders pledged to support the uprising financially and politically, and they responded to a call from Jordan’s King Hussein for aid as a front-line state against Israel.

No specific figures were announced, and pledges at past Arab summits have failed to be sustained, PLO and Jordanian officials have said.

The moderate camp was successful in tempering language proposed by Arab League foreign ministers that suggested some sort of economic sanctions against countries aiding or supporting the immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel, which an Israeli official said last week could increase to 20,000 a month later this year.

Despite the wrangling between hard-liners and moderates, including the Egyptian attempts to persuade the conference to go easy on the Americans and talk peace instead of confrontation, there was unity in the criticism of Israel.

“The real problem of this summit is not differences between Arabs,” a member of the Egyptian delegation said during a break in the working sessions. “The real prob lem is the intransigence of Israel.”

In other resolutions, the communique called for:

Political and economic sanctions against any country that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It sharply criticized resolutions adopted by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives supporting recognition.

Middle East peace efforts to be carried out in the forum of an international conference, as opposed to the stalled step-by-step negotiations favored by the Israelis and supported by Washington. The communique, in discussing the peace process, made no mention of U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which support trading land for peace and implicitly recognize the Israeli state.

NEXT STEP

Arab nations attending the Arab League summit in Baghdad are committed, by the final communique, to reviewing their relations with countries that support the settling of Soviet Jews in Israel. Those attending also pledged to provide both financial and political support for the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as aid to Jordan. But no figures were announced.