New Alignments

Now that Nasser was promising to behave, and perhaps had to, the concern about Russian penetration of the Middle East turned to a second trouble spot: Syria. There, another Russian-backed Nasser has come to power: young, handsome bachelor Lieut. Colonel Abdel Hamid Serraj. From the moment Syria proclaimed martial law after the Anglo-French and Israeli invasions of Egypt, President Shukri el Kuwatly has been the virtual prisoner of the army, and Colonel Serraj has established himself as Syria's strongman. Nominally the army's chief of intelligence, Colonel Serraj last month personally planned the sabotage of the Iraq Petroleum Co.'s pipeline to the Mediterranean, the key pro-Nasser play that cut off 60% of the Middle East oil flowing to Europe by other routes than Suez. The colonel is all for Nasser and all for the Soviets. Last week Washington confirmed news reports that Soviet arms have lately been arriving in "a steady flow" at the rate of two shiploads a week at the Syrian port of Latakia.

But while Washington is worried about Syria, it discounts some of the more exaggerated Anglo-French talk of Soviet take-over in Syria. It also disputes the talk of a complete collapse of Arab responsibility in the Middle East. In fact, last week there were promising signs of an Arab awareness of their own problems:

In tiny Lebanon, most prosperous of Arab countries, a wave of bombings shook Beirut in protest of President Camille Chamoun's refusal to break relations with Britain and France. The army and police occupied key points in the capital, arrested 200, reportedly found dynamite in the Egyptian commercial attache's car, and charged that the Egyptian assistant military attache had been involved in a plot against President Chamoun. A new pro-American government was formed under Sami el Solh. His Foreign Minister was a familiar and friendly face, Charles ("the good") Malik.

In Jordan, the supposedly pro-Egyptian Parliament voted to abrogate Jordan's treaty with Britain, then in a last-minute circus of second thoughts decided the idea might not be practical. Without Britain's $33.6 million annual subsidy, Jordan would be strapped for funds to keep even its Parliament going.

In Iraq, Western diplomats reported that 50 of Premier Nuri es-Said's police were injured putting down the latest of a series of almost daily pro-Nasser riots in Baghdad. The government replied by ordering high schools and universities closed indefinitely.

While troublemakers stirred in Baghdad streets, Premier Nuri es-Said met for three days with the leaders of the three other Moslem members of the Baghdad Pact--Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. (The fifth pact member--Britain--was not welcome.) The four pledged strong measures to fight "the rising tide of subversion in the Middle East," and were obviously most alarmed at the threat in Syria.

Out of their talks emerged the possibility that the moribund Baghdad Pact might be transmuted into something else --a purely Moslem pact against Soviet penetration. For some time Saudi Arabia's King Saud, despite his feud with the ruling Hashemite family in Iraq, has been moving gradually toward a rapprochement with Iraq, based on the common interest of the two largest oil-producing lands of the Arab world. (Saud fears that Syrians may blow up the U.S.-owned Tapline from his oil fields as they blew up the Iraqi pipeline.) From their new awareness could emerge an inner order in the Arab Middle East that colonialism was never able to find or foster there.

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