The Middle East A Radical Returns to the Ranks

By Michael S. Serrill

For four days statesmen representing the 21 members of the Arab League had argued, cajoled and bargained as they tried to work out their differences in the meeting rooms and corridors of the luxurious Plaza Hotel in Amman. Finally, tired but triumphant, King Hussein of Jordan took the podium at the closing ceremony to proclaim that the 15th summit of the league had produced nothing less than a "new birth" of Arab unity. The Jordanian monarch could be forgiven a bit of rhetorical excess. For while deep divisions in the Arab world remained, Hussein had indeed produced a remarkable and unexpected achievement. He had coaxed radical Syria and its inscrutable President, Hafez Assad, back into the Arab fold.

The Syrian turnaround became clear with the release of the summit's final communique, in which the assembled sheiks, princes and Presidents unanimously condemned Iran, which Syria has backed in the seven-year Iran-Iraq war. The members of the Arab League, the declaration says, "voiced their indignation at the Iranian regime's intransigence, provocations and threats to the Arab gulf states" and "denounced the bloody, criminal acts" of the Iranians who rioted last summer in the holy city of Mecca.

Just as startling was the assembled leaders' decision to rescind the pariah status of Egypt, which was suspended from the Arab League in 1979 after signing its peace treaty with Israel. While Syria vetoed the re-entry of its archrival into the league, the communique declared that re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Egypt "is a sovereign matter to be decided by each state." Within days, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Kuwait had all renewed relations, and at least four other states were expected to follow suit.

What inspired Syria's change of heart? According to summit participants, Assad concluded he could no longer remain aloof from the Arab world. Sentiment among the Arab leaders overwhelmingly favored pressuring Iran to end the war, and Assad apparently felt he had to move with the tide, putting at risk the millions of tons of free and subsidized oil that Iran has provided his country as a reward for his support. As for Egypt, the participants were eager to mend relations with the Arab world's most populous and powerful state so that Cairo's 450,000-man army could be held up as a counterbalance to the Iranian threat. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, dressed in military garb and packing a revolver, called for a "rallying of Arab ranks in the face of the common danger."

Even as Saddam Hussein spoke, his air force was busy in the Persian Gulf battering the shipping that keeps Tehran's coffers filled with oil wealth. Baghdad claimed to have hit eleven tankers off the coast of Iran during the week. The Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, meanwhile, called all able-bodied male Iranians to combat, a signal that Tehran may be ready to launch a major offensive.

According to sources at the Amman summit, the Syrian-Iraqi reconciliation implied by the condemnation of Iran will take concrete form in the next two weeks. Diplomatic relations will be restored, common borders will be reopened, and a dialogue between the governments will begin. For the moment, however, ! Syria is not severing its alliance with Iran. Foreign Minister Farouk Shara'a said, after the summit ended, that "Syria is against condemning Iran because it wasn't the beginner in the war."

Bringing Syria around was not easy. The longtime feud between Assad and Saddam Hussein poisoned the first day's summit proceedings. The two men, who are rivals for leadership of the region's socialist Baath movement, refused to shake hands, exchange words or even look at each other. But after hours of delicate mediation by other Arab leaders, the atmosphere thawed. At one point, when the Syrian and Iraqi Foreign Ministers were deadlocked over a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in the gulf war, Jordanian Foreign Minister Taher Masri went to Assad's suite to discuss the problem. Clad in his pajamas, Assad made a key concession -- he agreed to accept the resolution without changes demanded by Iran -- and broke the impasse. By the end of the summit, Assad and Saddam Hussein were not only talking, but addressing each other as "brother."

Such success seemed a remote prospect when, a few days before the summit began, King Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia announced he would stay home, a decision that was seen as a blow to King Hussein's prestige. Fahd's absence set off a new round of speculation about his effectiveness as a leader. Saudi watchers in Washington and Arab capitals say the King, in power since 1982, has proved disappointingly indecisive in dealing with Saudi Arabia's economic problems and its worsening relations with Iran. In addition, the King's battles with diabetes and obesity are said to have left him little energy for affairs of state.

As if to confirm Fahd's waning authority, his proxy in Amman, Crown Prince Abdullah, played an important role in persuading Syria's Assad to moderate his views. Moreover, the absence of the Saudi monarch served, as it turned out, to cast more of the spotlight on Jordan's Hussein, who has emerged in recent years as the Arabs' most active statesman. In the end, it was Hussein who persuaded Assad and Saddam Hussein to talk directly to each other.

The latest Arab summit, however, produced no progress in the Middle East's other continuing crisis, the Arab-Israeli conflict. The delegates largely ignored the presence of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, and King Hussein tried huddling with him to soothe any hurt feelings. Nonetheless, relations between the two leaders were strained. Arafat petulantly boycotted a summit banquet hosted by Hussein because he was not accorded the honors of a head of state.

With reporting by Dean Fischer/Amman and Murray J. Gart/Washington