Divided Arabs

WHEN UAR President Anwar Sadat told the inaugural session of the reconstituted Arab Socialist Union that the Arab situation is “deplorable”, he was making the understatement of the year. Never has the Arab world been in greater disarray. After the successful counter-coup in Khartoum, General Gaafar Numeiry has broken off Sudan’s diplomatic relations with Iraq, the only country that recognised the communist-backed junta which has staged the short-lived coup. Morocco is at daggers drawn with Libya for the latter’s support to the abortive coup in Rabat. In both Rabat and Khartoum, the firing squads are working overtime. The State-controlled Egyptian press has been making sharp comments on the repression in Morocco, Al-Ahram calling Oukfir, King Hassan’s hatchet man, as the “executioner in power.” But Cairo looks the other way when genocide is going on in Bangla Desh and nearer home, in Sudan, the executioner’s axe is in full play. Sadat made only a casual reference to the events in Khartoum during his speech at the ASU session, while he went hammer and tongs at King Hussein of Jordan. The king has incurred the wrath of the UAR President for liquidating the Palestinian guerrilla bases in his country. Referring to King Hussein’s assurance that he would still observe the Cairo agreement on the commandos, Sadat said flatly: “I do not believe him.” Then came the sneer at the short-statured King of Jordan: “Hussein cannot be bigger than his size — even if he has the United States of America, he will always remain his size.” Sadat’s bitterness is not merely due to the humiliation suffered by the Arab world by some Palestinian guerrillas seeking refuge in Israel. There are rumours that King Hussein might make a separate peace deal with Israel, now that he has got rid of the guerrillas who have always stood in the way of any move.

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