UN sanctions on Israel face veto

A Syrian-sponsored resolution pressing for full-scale sanctions against Israel appears headed for US, British, and French vetoes this week at the UN Security Council, special Monitor correspondent Louis Wiznitzer reports.

In December, the Council unanimously approved a resolution calling Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights ''null and void'' and called on the Security Council to ''consider appropriate measures'' if Israel did not rescind its move on the Golan.

The Syrians were expected by some observers here to start pressing for sanctions but later to soften their position so as eventually to present a milder resolution which, while harshly condemning Israel, would not actually make sanctions compulsory.

Such a resolution would in all likelihood be adopted with the US abstaining. Thus, Syria would score an important political victory over Israel.

The State Department, according to reliable reports, feared that Syria would show precisely this kind of realism and force it once again to take on Mr. Begin , as it did in a similar situation last year after Israel bombed out an Iraqi nuclear facility.

Syria's inflexibility in fact plays into the hands of US diplomacy at this time by providing an excuse for shielding Israel with its veto. The Reagan administration is reportedly eager to mend fences with Israel and would be seriously embarrassed were it to allow an anti-Israel resolution through the Security Council. But the Reagan administration couldn't oppose one if it were essentially based on Washington's own denunciations of the Golan Heights annexation.