Arab Powers move to unity

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 6

Arab Powers move to unity

NZPA-Reuter Beirut President Ahmed Hassan Bakr of Iraq and President Hafez Assad of Syria have begun a second round of talks in Bagdad on uniting their countries, the two largest military Powers in the Arab world. The Presidents have already chaired discussions of the Higher Political Committee, a body formed last October when the two countries announced an end to more than a decade of bitter ideological conflict and move towards unity. The unity agreement was a reaction to the Camp David accords which last March led to Israel and Egypt signing a peace treaty. Both Syria and Iraq are opposed to the treaty and

see it as a sell-out of Arab interests. Reporting on the first day of the talks, the official Iraqi News Agency made no mention of th?ir expected results, but Lebanese newspapers predicted that the two sides would announce the merger of the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Information. Most foreign analysts in the Middle East consider the prospect of a full merger unlikely. They point to the failure of previous union attempts in the quarrelsome Arab world, and say Syria and Iraq have not even begun to tackle the most serious obstacle on the road to union—uniting the rival wings of the Baath Party which rule the two countries.