Outrage in Islam

Muslim nations condemn the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

It may yet prove to be a watershed in Moscow's dealings with the Third World. In Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, foreign ministers representing the 35 members of the Islamic Conference last week condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as a "flagrant violation" of international law. The delegates, who represented such traditional friends of Moscow as Algeria, Libya and the Palestine Liberation Organization, also demanded "the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Soviet troops stationed on Afghan territory" and suspended Afghanistan's membership in the international Islamic organization.

The resolution was a far more stinging rebuff to the Soviet Union than the U.N. General Assembly's mildly worded statement, fortnight earlier, calling for a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. In addition, the Islamic summit, to which the Afghanistan government was invited but failed to attend, also managed to get the feuding Afghan rebel groups to form an ad hoc united front: the Islamic Alliance for the Liberation of Afghanistan. The front's spokesman, Burhanuddin Rabbani, former head of the faculty of Islamic law at Kabul University, told the conference that although Soviet troops controlled the main Afghan cities, roads and airports, the rest of the country was largely in the hands of the guerrillas.

In addition to the host, Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, the most influential voice at the conference was that of Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal. Arriving in Islamabad, Saud emphasized that the conference must take a strong line on the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which he said "threatened the independence of Muslim countries." He urged Islamic states to break diplomatic ties with Kabul, boycott the Moscow Olympics and provide assistance to the refugees. In the end, those points were included in the resolution, though only as recommendations. The final vote of the foreign ministers on the anti-Soviet measure was not known but, as one Pakistani diplomat told TIME, "There was no dissenting voice on this issue." The strong language of the resolution, he added', was "commensurate with the outrage." The U.S., by comparison, was given only a tap on the wrist. In surprisingly moderate language, the foreign ministers registered their disapproval of the Camp David accords and called on Iran and the U.S. to resolve their differences peacefully.

Meanwhile, the war continued in Afghanistan. The six divisions that the Soviet Union threw into the country, which have an estimated strength of about 92,000 men, have maintained control over population centers, but fighting was reported last week in the northeast and northwest sections. Soviet correspondents reported that saboteurs were blowing up bridges and communications lines in several regions, forcing the Afghan army to remain on constant alert. Pravda admitted that the Afghan "bandits," as it refers to the rebels, remained active, adding: "Storm clouds hang over the republic from the Pakistani and the Chinese sides of the border. It is from there that a flow of weapons and propaganda [as well as] armed saboteurs and bandits are sent to Afghan territory." The Soviets also accused Pakistan of operating military training camps on its side of the Afghan border. The Pakistanis denied the charge, pointing out that the refugee camps are open for inspection to journalists and other visitors.

The seemingly endless flights of troop transports into Kabul airport, carrying army regulars to replace the mobilized reservists who took part in the original invasion, suggested that the Soviets are settling in for a long stay. Oil Tycoon Armand Hammer last week said that Soviet Ambassador Anatoli Dobrynin had assured him that the troops would leave; but they surely will not go until the Kabul government of Babrak Karmal is secure and the insurgency is under control --and that could take months, if not years.

As long as the rebels are still fighting, most U.S. and British military analysts doubt that the aging, innately conservative Soviet leadership would contemplate an extension of the invasion eastward into Pakistan or southward to the Persian Gulf. The Carter Administration, however, can hardly afford to take a chance on that. Accordingly, it dispatched a series of official missions to Southwest Asia and the Middle East last week in an effort to gain support for the President's regional security proposals.

The most important of the missions was the one led by National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This team will be quickly followed to Riyadh by another, led by the State Department's Political and Military Affairs Director Reginald Bartholomew and Matthew Nimetz, the Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance. Its aim: to negotiate the use of military facilities in Somalia, Kenya or, most likely, Oman, which could become an important U.S. military outpost in the 1980s. Middle East Negotiator Sol Linowitz visited Saudi Arabia last week to talk about the ongoing Egyptian-Israeli negotiations over autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Perhaps the most difficult chore of all fell to Special Envoy Clark Clifford, who flew to New Delhi to discuss the situation with newly elected Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The two agreed that the Soviet Union should withdraw from Afghanistan, but on little else. The Indians were already upset about the recent trip to Peking of U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown and the possibility of limited military links between China and the U.S. They are also nervous about the military aid the U.S. is now willing to supply to Pakistan. Clifford argued that such arms would not constitute a threat to India but would be used only to check possible Soviet forays into Pakistan from across the Afghan border. Mrs. Gandhi pointed out that Pakistan had used U.S. arms against India in three wars in the past 33 years, and she maintained that a renewal of such aid to Pakistan would only increase tensions in Southwest Asia. Clifford heard her out and promised that if U.S. arms aid to Islamabad is resumed as expected, Washington will carefully monitor the uses to which Pakistan puts the American weapons.

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