KUBBEH PALACE: MINISTER, ACCOMPANIED BY AND SPEAKING THROUGH AN INTERPRETER, BEING INTERVIEWED IN GARDEN.



TRANSCRIPT: REPORTER: Do you foresee any change in the conduct and course of. the conflict as a result of the summit?



MINISTER: (In Arabic)



INTERPRETER: I have to emphasize from the beginning that already there are some important changes in the conflict which are due to the fact that Israel has received more aid in the form of military equipment and aeroplanes from the U.S.A.



MINISTER: (In Arabic)



INTERPRETER: The United States has....(indistinct) by supplying Israel with equipment; she is trying to restore the balance of power in the region. Actually, the way we look at this question, the way this question is viewed by fair-minded people all over the world, is that the Arabs lost most of their military equipment during the June war and what the United States is doing now is not restoring the balance of power but is exacerbating the situation in the region.



REPORTER: Could we come to the question of the guerillas? What future relationship do you foresee between regular and guerilla forces in the conflict?



INTERPRETER: They are all Palestinian liberation forces and have a future role in this conflict, but the main role is really that of the regular Arab forces. Because of this realisation we have advocated that there should be some co-ordination between the work that's undertaken by the liberation army, the liberation forces, and the regular army, some co-ordination between the struggle, the armed struggle that's undertaken in the land of Palestine and the popular struggle that's taking place everywhere in the Arab nation.




Initials EH/V/AS/BJ



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Consultations between Jaafar El-Nimeiry, Prime Minister of the Sudan, President Nasser of Egypt and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, ended in Cairo at the weekend. Their aim was to co-ordinate the three countries' military, political economic and social policies.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister, Farouk-Abou-Eissa, was interviewed before his departure and gave his views on the current phase of the Arab-Israeli conflict; he emphasized the need to co-ordinate the efforts of regular and guerilla forces and to assign the "main role" to the regular armies.

Accompanied by an interpreter, he spoke to a reporter in the gardens of the Kubbeh Palace.

The tripartite meeting followed a wider conference of Heads of State of Arab "frontline" countries which ended a week ago (9 February) with a declaration reaffirming the participants' determination to liberate the Israeli-occupied territory.

The Sudanese Premier, in a television interview which he gave on the day on which his Foreign Minister was also interviewed, said tension in the Middle East had increased and referred especially to the bombing of the metal plant on the outskirts of Cairo last Wednesday with its heavy toll of casualties. He said he hoped the Arabs would "declare war on American interests in the region".