News In Brief

Soviets offer 'open-ended' military aid to Syria

The Soviet Union has told the US it will supply Syria with ''everything it takes'' to retain a foothold in the Middle East, former US Ambassador Robert Neumann said Saturday. Neumann said he and former US Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders were given this message, clearly intended to be transmitted to the Reagan administration, during private talks with senior Soviet officials in Moscow last month.

Neumann strongly advocated withdrawing the multinational peacekeeping force from Beirut. ''In view of the open-ended Soviet supply lihe to Syria which we cannot match, it is clear we are in no position to outlast the Syrians,'' he said.