A New October War of Words

The most prominent victim so far of Henry Kissinger's interim agreement in the Sinai turns out to be the Arab unity that was forged so tightly in the 1973 October War. Egypt and Syria, the two principal "confrontation nations" in that war, last week continued a campaign of vilification against each other that is turning into a new October war of words. Syria is angry because Egyptian President Anwar Sadat agreed to the Kissinger accord on Sinai. Egypt is furious at the unexpected fury of the Syrian assault.

Egyptian newspapers, attacking Syria and its charges of a "sellout" by Cairo, claimed that Damascus had ungallantly sought a truce on the first day of the 1973 war. Sadat pointed out that the Sinai agreement included pledges from President Ford for continuing talks on the Syrian situation and the Palestinian issue. Syria's reply verged on the irrational. The Syrians accused Egypt, for instance, of fanning the internal fighting that has gripped Lebanon so that Cairo could take over its role as the financial hub of the Middle East.

Second Thoughts. The Syrian arguments were really not as irrational as they seemed to be. With the United Nations' peace-keeping mandate on the Israeli-Syrian border due to expire on Nov. 30, and Kissinger committed to second-stage disengagement negotiations there, Damascus appeared mainly to be staking out a hard bargaining position.

In an interview with TIME Diplomatic Editor Jerrold Schecter in New York last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam accepted almost nothing that Kissinger has negotiated. As for the Sinai agreement, Khaddam observed that "we do not find that Egypt has achieved anything." He also predicted that the U.S. would have second thoughts about the cost of its commitments. "If a withdrawal from 5% of the Sinai and 1% of the total occupied Arab territory [has proved to be expensive], what is the price that must be paid for the remaining 99%?"

Khaddam insisted that Damascus would not enter into separate negotiations on the Golan Heights: "We have rejected the policy of fragmenting the negotiations." He also thought little of the idea of resuming the Geneva Conference, which he felt would soon degenerate into "a site for exchanging speeches." The next step for the U.S., he felt, would be "to cancel the Sinai agreement and go back and discuss a comprehensive settlement." That at least was a sign the Syrians would be ready to sit down--somewhere, sometime--and start to talk peace in earnest.

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