Sadat snub boosts Arab radicals

Press, 6 November 1978, Page 8

Sadat snub boosts Arab radicals

International .

NZPA-Reuter

Cairo

President Sadat of Egypt has snubbed the antiEgyptian Arab summit meeting in Bagdad, making clear his commitment to the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel being negotiated in Washington.

Mr Sadat refused to receive, or allow any of his officials to meet, a four-man delegation sent from the summit meeting to Cairo in last-ditch effort to persuade him to cali off the Washington talks.

The delegation, led by the Lebanese Prime Minister (Mr Selim Hoss), stayed in Cairo for only three hours, having been met at the airport by a junior chamberlain from the President’s office — seen as a diplomatic slap in the face. The official Middle East News Agency quoted President Sadat as saying he was not prepared to receive anybody except kings and presidents, indicating that he was insulted at the low-level of the delegation. But in an apparent move to keep the door to ArabEgyptian reconciliation open, Mr Sadat said: “If they (the kings and presidents) wish, I am prepared to receive them welcome them, sit down, and hold discussions with them.”

The official Iraqi News Agency said the delegation was carrying a written message from the summit meeting formally asking Mr Sadat to renounce the peace accords he signed with Israel at Camp David, Maryland, in September. The agency said Egypt would receive substantial cash aid if they agreed. President Sadat, who said the summit meeting had not informed him in advance of the decision to send the delegation, told the People’s ■Assembly (Parliament) with a voice ringing with restrained anger that “all the millions (of dollars) of the

whole world cannot buy thei will of Egypt.” Iraq has proposed a S9OOOM fund, of which Egypt would receive SSOOOM, to drop its peace initiative with Israel. President Sadat described the delegation as an attempt at face-saving by the 21 members of the Bagdad summit meeting. The Egyptian leader told the Assembly that he had sent a full analysis of the Camp David talks to "all Arab leaders except Iraq, Syria, Algeria, South Yemen, Libya, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. “Instead of answering, they resorted to. the old method of emotionalism, and called for the Bagdad conference,” he said. When Iraq first called for the summit meeting last month, Egypt said it was prepared to attend, provided it was carefully prepared for, held in Cairo, and that in addition to the Middle East crisis, its agenda should include the situation in Lebanon. Egypt was not invited to the summit meeting. The Arab Heads of State meeting in Bagdad to find ways to thwart Egyptian-Is-raeli peace moves were yesterday expected to impose economic and other sanctions against Egypt. Saud i-led conservative Arab States, which have so far prevented Egypt’s being) isolated in the Arab world,! shielded the country from! extreme measures demanded! by Arab radicals in the first! (three days of the summit! ■meeting attended by 21! (members of the Arab I League. Egypt, the omy l

! I other member, was not injvited. But they now appear i unable to resist radical pressure for a complete political i and economic boycott of Egypt, expulsion from the I Arab League, and the remov- ; al of Arab League headquarters from Cairo, conference I sources say. Conservative delegates ‘ told NZPA-Reuter that they 1 would do their best to water down radical demands, but felt their position was weak. ■ “We have been pushed into a corner,” one Gulf dip- ■ lomat said. The conservative States i themselves suggested the mission to Cairo after being _ challenged to prove Egypt’s ‘ good faith in claiming it was . not seeking a separate peace wih Israel. The four-man ; team returned after Presii dent Sadat refused to see them, and without meeting ‘ any Egypian officials. i No Arab Head of State ’ could be found to lead the j summit delegation because : of the risk of a snub by Egypt, and the conservatives were aware of a possible , rebuff when they chose a j low-key team led by the Lebanese Prime Minister. But that not even the ■ Egyptian Prime Minister ■ would talk to the delegation had not been thought posi sible by Saudi Arabia and i its allies, the sources added. ; Radical delegates, especial- , ly those of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, who I feel that the Camp David J accords left them completely :I in the Middle East wilderiness, were jubilant at the , news of President Sadat’s j snub to the mission.