Off the Fence

After seven days of friendly talk in Baghdad, Premiers Adnan Menderes of Turkey and Nuri es-Said of Iraq jointly announced last week their decision to sign a mutual defense pact. Washington and London were pleased: the joining of oil-rich Iraq to NATO member Turkey is the first major break in the log jam of Arab neutrality. But in Cairo, the news caused consternation.

Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, no friend of Communism, has nevertheless used his considerable prestige to keep the Middle East state uncommitted. In the quarrelsome and weak Arab League, neutralism is not hard to sell since it is negative: the Arab states are united chiefly by a common antipathy to Israel and a general indifference to the Cold War. But last month, meeting in Cairo, three Arab League members (Iraq, Syria and Lebanon) openly rebelled against Nasser's neutralism. They pointed to his own deal with London, whereby the British agreed to get out of Suez and the U.S. followed through with $40 million in aid. The three states insisted on an open discussion of the economic and military advantages of dealing with the West. Nasser agreed to set another meeting for Jan. 10 to discuss their complaint, but the meeting was never held because Iraq said it could not come. Iraq was already, it turned out, preparing its deal with Turkey.

At week's end Gamal Abdel Nasser was in a spot. If he reversed himself and approved Iraq's move, he risked trouble with his own mercurial and frequently xenophobic people. If he disapproved, but could not stop the falling away of other Arab states, Egypt might find itself no longer the leader in the Arab Middle East. Fretted Nasser: "Sometimes politicians are not patient enough. This action has come too soon. Now it will be complicated."

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