Egypt appeals – for support as Arabs unite against treaty

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 8

Egypt appeals - for support as Arabs unite against treaty

NZPA-Reuter Cairo With only hours to go before Egypt signed its controversial peace treaty with Israel, President Anwar Sadat’s National Democratic Party appealed yesterday to other Arab countries to "join Egypt in forging a Middle East peace. Amid tightened security throughout the country, it also issued a warning against attempts to divide the Egyptian people, saying in a statement that Egypt was “fully alert against any foreign conspiracies against the people, who maintain their solid national unity.”

Newspapers made no reference to mounting Arab opposition to the treaty. But the semi-official “Al Ahram” and the mass circulation “Al Akhbar” bitterly criticised the current visit of the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) to Syria, saying it was intended to turn tKe other Arabs against Egypt even more. Mr Gromyko arrived in Damascus on his surprise visit on Saturday and reaffirmed Kremlin opposition to the treaty. Informed sources in Damascus said yesterday that Mr Gromyko was likely to be asked to translate Moscow’s political support into arms supplies to balance United States military aid to Israel. In the past Syria has been angered by apparent Soviet reluctance to step up its arms supplies so as to maintain what Damascus calls a “strategic balance” with Israel now that Egypt has concluded its peace with the Jewish State.

Western diplomats said the Kremlin, faced with the rapidly-evolving Egypt-Is-rael alliance, may now drop this reluctance. But the Kremlin leadership might also press for a better deal for Iraq’s Communists, whose relations with the Bagdad Government have come under increasing strain in recent months, in return for significant military backing for the SyriaIraq alliance, diplomats said. The Soviet-Syrian talks

came on the eve of a big Arab gathering starting in Bagdad today when Arab League Foreign and Economic Ministers are expected to draw up plans for punitive action against Egypt for signing the peace ‘ treaty with Israel. President Hafe-Assad of Syria yesterday sent messages to several Heads of State saying the situation in the Middle East would becor : more dangerous after a treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel, official sources have said.

“By signing this treaty the head of the Egyptian regime will have disrupted the opportunities of creating a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” the message was reported by the sources to have said. In an interview with “Newsweek” published yesterday President Assad said that President Sadat had signed his own demise by agreeing to the peace treaty. President Assad said: “We can say without hesitation, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Sadat has signed his own demise.

“He (Sadat) has sold out the dignity, interests and principles of the Egyptian and Arab people who will now call him to account for these dastardly deeds.” Meanwhile, Bagdad announced that King Hussein of Jordan will today begin an official visit to Iraq in what was seen as a further attempt to consolidate Arab opposition to the peace treaty. In a separate interview with “Newsweek,” King Hussein said the Arabs must make the United States see the error of its policy and bring the whole problem back into the United Nations Security Council. The Jordanian monarch held talks earlier this week with the royal leaders of Saudi Arabia which, like Jordan, has refused to bow to strong United States pressure to support the EgyptIsrael treaty.

King Khalid of Saudi Arabia at the week-end reaffirmed his country’s rejection of the proposed peace treaty—dealing a significant blow to United States hopes that moderate Arab States like Saudi Arabia and Jordan would at least desist from openly opposing the United States-engineered treaty. King Hussein’s visit to Iraq seems certain to renew speculation about the formation of an eastern Arab front comprised of the Syria-Iraq alliance and Jordan. Jordanian officials have indicated recently they fear Israeli attacks after the peace treaty and the Jordanian Monarch may raise these apprehensions in his talks with President Ahmed Hassan Bakr, who invited him to Bagdad. Palestinian guerrillas kept up their political opposition to the peace treaty, which they say ignores their rights and damages their cause. Two bomb blasts shattered windows of the American embassy in Damascus on Sunday night. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage. A witness said someone in the car shouted: “To hell with the traitorous agreement,” before driving off. In Dallas, Texas, at the week-end President Jimmy Carter said that a short period of threats and acts of terrorism would follow the signing of the Egyptian-Is-raeli peace treaty. But he told a group of radio and television station owners that the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Jordan and Syria would soon see “the terrific advantages” of peace and that it would then be “more easy to bring them into the peace process.” In Teheran, Iran’s religious patriarch, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, in a major foreign policy statement on Sunday denounced the peace accord as thousands of Iranians demonstrated outside the Egyptian Embassy.