NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A031300190002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 23, 1979
• Content Type: REPORT

Apcrued For Release 2004/07/08: CIA-RDP79T00975AO311
National Intelligence Daily
Monday
23 April 1979
State Dept. review completed
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Overnight Reports . . . . . . . . .
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(The items in the Overnight Reports section have not
been coordinated within the intelligence community.
They are prepared overnight by the office of Current
Operations with analyst comment where possible from the
production offices of NFAC.)
The US Embassy in Moscow reports that President
Brezhnev broke precedents in not attending the Lenin
birthday celebration at the Kremlin on Friday and in
not meeting, at least briefly, with the Congressional
delegation that completed its official visit to the USSR
yesterday. These developments strengthen the Embassy's
impression that Brezhnev is currently on a somewhat re-
stricted work schedule. On Friday, he did preside over
a meeting of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet, but
Soviet television did not provide audio coverage of the
proceedings--it would usually carry two or three brief
speeches by Brezhnev on the agenda items. The Embassy
found Brezhnev "listless and inattentive" during the
relativel few closeups afforded by the television trans-
mission.
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Deputy Prime Minister Entezam, the official spokesman
for the government, announced yesterday that, with the
approval of Ayatollah Khomeini, Prime Minister Bazargan
will take over the foreign affairs portfolio vacant since
the resignation of Karim Sanjabi on 15 April. The spokes-
man added, however, that Deputy Prime Minister Yazdi will
actually be running the foreign ministry. 25X1
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Japan
Preliminary press reports indicate that conservative
and centrist candidates led by Prime Minister Ohira's
Liberal Democratic Party again did extremely well in
yesterday's second round of local elections this month.
As was true for the first round two weeks ago, the per-
centage of eligible voters casting ballots was at a record
low. 1 -1
China-Italy
Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Li Qiang arrived in
Rome yesterday and is scheduled to sign a new bilateral
trade agreement today. Sino-Italian trade last year
totaled $39 million, 50 percent above the level for 1977.
According to a Western news agency report, Li will also
confer with government and business leaders in Milan,
Turin, and Venice before leaving Italy for Greece on
Friday.
The US Embassy in New Delhi reports that the ruling
but faction-ridden Janata Party has entered a renewed
phase of its internal struggle with the ouster on last
Thursday of Karpoori Thakur as chief minister of Bihar,
India's second largest state. Thakur is an ally of Dep-
uty Prime Minister-Finance Minister Charan Singh, and
the margin of his defeat in the voting by Janata legis-
lators in Bihar apparently was largely supplied by De-
fense Minister Ram. Former Prime Minister Gandhi may
now renew her overtures to Charan Singh in an effort to
destabilize the Janata Party, but the Embassy notes that,
given her legal problems, she seems a much less attrac-
tive ally these days than several months ago. Prime
Minister Desai's position is not currently in any danger,
but the renewal of factional strife within his party is
likely further to hamper the government's ability to
function effectively.
--continued
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Norway - Middle East
The US Embassy in Oslo has noted the considerable
domestic political impact of the casualties suffered
last Wednesday by Norwegian soldiers when Christian
militia leader Haddad's forces fired on the headquarters
of the UN Interim Force in. Lebanon. Norway remains firm
in its commitment to UNIFIL but will be pushing for
further diplomatic efforts to restrain the combatants in
southern Lebanon. Norwegian media, the Embassy comments,
are displaying a growing skepticism toward Israeli dis-
claimers of involvement there. Norwegian leaders, how-
ever, have yet to repeat their o en criticism last fall
of Israeli support for Haddad. 25X1
Kuwait-Turkey
The US Embassy in Kuwait reported yesterday that
the country's development assistance agency, which has
increasingly provided aid to non-Arab states in recent
years, has decided to loan Turkey about $14.5 million
for an electric power project and may provide funding
for an improvement in the water supply to Ankara, Turkey's
capital city. The Embassy notes that the fact of such
assistance to Turkey by a major Arab aid donor is more
significant than its size. 25X1
Thailand
With almost all of the ballots counted in yester-
day's election of a new 301-member lower house, it ap-
pears likely that Prime Minister Kriangsak, as expected,
will be retained in office when that post is filled by a
vote of both houses of the national legislature. All
225 senators formally appointed yesterday by the King
reportedly were selected by Kriangsak. The party of
his principal rival, former Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj,
apparently will have, however, at least 81 seats, more
than any other party in the lower house. The almost cer-
tain outcome and the relatively narrow differences among
the competing parties--no leftist parties were repre-
,sented--probably were key factors in the low voter turn-
out, only slightly better than half that of the preced-
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