Extravagant Dissension

Absent Iran dominates the Islamic summit

The new chandeliers in the palatial $250 million conference center glittered brilliantly, and fleets of limousines shuttled among 70 newly built VIP villas. But no amount of extravagance could conceal the divisions that plagued the 37 Muslim nations represented at last week's third Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia's mountain resort of Taif.

The conference was set back at the beginning by Iran's refusal to attend and, in a way, was dominated throughout by the absence of the Iranians. Even a special delegation that flew to Tehran was turned back by Iran's refusal to share any forum with its enemy in the gulf war, Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.

Undeterred, Saddam went ahead to the summit and renewed a longstanding offer to settle the four-month war. If Iran would give up its claim to the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway, Saddam told the summit, Iraq would promise to withdraw its forces from Iran. Said he: "A solution must be based on the recovery of territorial and offshore rights Iran has [previously] usurped by force." Within hours, the absent but attentive Iranians responded: no deal until all Iraqi troops have left Iranian soil.

Overall, the conference could have long-term significance: it enhanced the prestige of Saudi Arabia as a political power and marked an increased unity among Islamic nations from Southeast Asia to North Africa. Nonetheless, further dissension was evident in a number of other intricate issues taken up in the four-day convention. Among them:

AFGHANISTAN. With Syria and Marxist South Yemen dissenting, the conference passed a Saudi-backed resolution committing Tunisia, Guinea, Iran and Pakistan to assist U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim in seeking a settlement. It stopped short of condemning the 1979 Soviet invasion, but called for the withdrawal of the 80,000 Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq reported "intimations of flexibility" from both the Soviets and their puppet in Kabul, Babrak Karmal. But the militant Afghan rebels, in spite of their close relations with the Saudis, adamantly refused to sit down with representatives of Karmal's government.

LEBANON. President Elias Sarkis stunned delegates by calling for an end to the Palestine Liberation Organization's use of southern Lebanon as a base of operations for incursions into Israel. "Lebanon is no longer able to bear the death and destruction," said Sarkis. "I place the case in your hands, asking justice, and I am sure you are capable of this." P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat listened impassively, scribbling notes.

ISRAEL. With a so-called Mecca Declaration, named for Islam's holiest city, the delegates unanimously declared a jihad, or holy war, against Israel, using their combined "military, economic and political resources--including oil." The proclamation proposed broad new economic sanctions against Israel, along the lines of the 35-year-old Arab League boycott.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin scoffed at the predictable militancy: "No jihad is going to frighten us." As if to underscore the point, late last week Israeli warplanes strafed Palestinian bases in southern Lebanon, the first cross-border attacks this year.

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