October 8, 1983

Concern is growing at the highest levels of the Reagan Administration that developments in Syria and Israel are producing trends that could set back any chances for a peaceful settlement in Lebanon and even touch off another conflict in the Middle East. The latest such sign was the disclosure Thursday that the Soviet Union was preparing to send Syria an advanced mobile missile, the SS-21, which could hit Israeli population centers. This was regarded yesterday in Washington as only the latest step by Syria to build up its armed forces so they could not only remain dominant in Lebanon but also successfully challenge Israel on the battlefield. Syria's overall goal is to end Israel's occupation of both the Golan Heights, which it lost to the Israelis in the 1967 war, and the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan. An Assumption Crumbles More than 7,000 Soviet soldiers have been sent to Syria this year, and the Russians have supplied Syria with $2.5 billion in military equipment, Administration officials said. This equipment, including advanced MIG-23 and MIG-25 fighter planes, up-to-date M-72 tanks and SA-5 antiaircraft missiles never before deployed outside the Soviet Union, goes well beyond what Syria possessed before suffering heavy losses to Israel in Lebanon in 1982. The SS-21 missile, an improved version of the less accurate Frog missile, has also never been assigned outside of Europe.

Political leaders today hailed an agreement between the Government and foreign banks to ease repayment terms on the country's $90 billion foreign debt, but some said it did not go far enough. Opposition leaders said the agreement, announced Thursday night in Washington, did not change their view that Brazil needs a moratorium on all debt payments - interest as well as principal - until it emerges from the severe recession that has afflicted its economy for the last three years. ''What was decided this week is much more realistic and gives us much more flexibility,'' said Raphael de Almeida Magalhaes, an economic adviser to the Brazilian Democratic Movement, the principal opposition party. ''It is a good starting point, the beginning of a real global renegotiation of the debt. But it is not enough.''

The Commissioner of Customs has recommended that three dozen products made in the Soviet Union be barred from the United States because he has reason to believe they were made with the help of forced labor. The Commissioner, William von Raab, said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan that he had information that ''reasonably indicates'' the products were manufactured with the help of prisoners or other forced labor. Any ban needs the approval of the Treasury Department.

The nation's unemployment rate fell by three- tenths of a percentage point to 9.1 percent in September, the lowest level in 18 months, the Labor Department reported today. This was a somewhat better performance than most economists had expected. The improvement was accompanied by a sharp rise in the average factory workweek and by another strong gain, nearly 400,000, in the overall number of people employed, which includes military personnel stationed in the United States. Except for an increase of one-tenth of a point in August in overall unemployment, this measure has either fallen or remained unchanged every month since reaching its peak of 10.7 percent last December. The level is now the lowest since March 1982, and the number of workers with jobs is at a record 103.64 million.

Pope John Paul II's personal representative in the United States will preside Monday at the funeral of Terence Cardinal Cooke at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The representative, Archbishop Pio Laghi, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, will be the principal celebrant for the funeral mass. Archbishop William Baum, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Education in the Vatican and the highest- ranking American prelate in the Vatican, will deliver the homily at the 2 P.M. service. More than 2,500 priests, bishops and invited guests from around the world are expected to attend.