Arms & Friends

The time had come for Arabs, with much bussing and holding of hands, to prove that they are all brothers--a ceremonial which involves increased fervor on the occasions when the sentiment is least true.

Last week's touching of hands by Arabs who basically are quarreling with one another was the result of the U.S. State Department's ill-advised attempt publicly to isolate and quarantine Syria from its neighbors (TIME, Sept. 23). All Arab friends of the U.S. had to show Syria that they would have no part of such a maneuver. And so last week Damascus was treated to the first diplomatic visit by an Iraqi Premier (Ali Jawdat, the summer replacement of Strongman Nuri asSaid) since 1949. The most elaborate gesture of all was the visit to Syria by Saudi Arabia's King Saud, who broke off his European tour and left the waters of Baden-Baden to proclaim his Arab solidarity with Syria.

Startled Guests. Outwardly his trip to Damascus looked a lot like the old "positive neutrality" sessions that King Saud used to hold with the Syrians and Egyptians before he took his stand beside Ike in Washington last winter against Communist penetration of the Middle East. Four MIG jets escorted his plane to Damascus' Mezze field, where the King stepped forth in flowing brown robes to review an honor guard, kiss the cheeks of President Shukri el Kuwatly and listen to purple-worded welcomes. Privately the King warned both Kuwatly and new Army Chief Afif Bizri (who denies U.S. allegations that he is a Communist) against too close cooperation with Soviet Russia, and exacted a promise that they would not grant Russia any military bases.

The one Syrian Saud would not see was Defense Minister Khaled el Azm, the man who negotiated the Syrian-Soviet army deal. Azm had once accused Saud of being a friend of Israel and a tool of imperialists, and this the King would not forgive. Azm is an example of the kind of confused Arab nationalist that the Russians are doing so well with these days. At a recent banquet greeting a Russian delegation, Azm praised his startled guests by proclaiming, "The Soviet Union has fought Communism in our country."

Azm was not much in evidence during Saud's visit, but sailors from a visiting Soviet cruiser and destroyer filled Damascus' streets. As if he had not seen them, Saud issued a statement that "Syria cannot possibly be a cause of threat to any of her neighbors" (a public rebuke to Dulles), and left for home. Damascus' semiofficial Al Akhbar hailed the visit as "a new victory for Arab nationalism and a severe blow to imperialist politics." But in the kind of parting gesture Arabs make so much of, Saud shook hands with President Kuwatly, then before getting into his plane went out of his way to seek out and shake hands with U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires Robert Strong. There was no joint communique on parting, and not a word from Saud endorsing "positive neutrality."

Friendly Nasser. In Cairo the inventor of "positive neutrality" was going through an odd phase. The controlled Cairo press of President Nasser accused the U.S. of plotting with Lebanon's Charles Malik and Israel's David Ben-Gurion to sell out Palestine's refugees to Israel. It accused the U.S. of massing troops behind Turkey's southeastern border to invade Syria. It said that the U.S. has loosed 4,000 agents in the Middle East to destroy Arab nationalism. It reported that a U.S. diplomat in New Delhi tried to steal the Taj Mahal jewels in hopes of inciting a Hindu-Moslem race riot. The newspaper Al Kahira characterized the U.S.'s John Foster Dulles as "a sadist," and Al Gum-huria called him a "madman."

In the same week as these "news items" appeared, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser called in U.S. newsmen to say that he would be willing to meet with President Eisenhower, if Eisenhower took the initiative. "It is to Egypt's interest to have good relations with the U.S.," said Nasser.

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