MIDDLE EAST: Rogers on the Road

MIDDLE EAST Rogers on the Road

In. Cairo last week, workmen slapped thick coats of cream-colored paint on the walls of the U.S. embassy, which has functioned technically as the American Affairs Section of the Spanish embassy since Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Washington four years ago. Gardeners carefully groomed the embassy lawn and chauffeurs diligently polished official black cars. “It’s been 18 years since we’ve had a Secretary of State here,” said an American diplomat, surveying the work. “We’re making the most of it.”

The last visit was hardly auspicious. After John Foster Dulles went to Cairo in 1953, relations between Egypt and the U.S. began to disintegrate; the U.S. subsequently refused to underwrite the building of the Aswan Dam. The Russians gladly stepped in and began spreading their influence throughout the Middle East. Now as William Rogers follows up meetings in London, Paris and Ankara with a five-nation Middle East circuit this week, the U.S. hopes to make the most of his Cairo visit for peacemaking purposes. Rogers is paying ceremonial calls on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and will make a brief halt in Amman principally to bolster Jordan’s King Hussein.

Main Goal. The major stops on his journey, however, are Cairo and Jerusalem. In each capital, Rogers, who last year arranged an effective ceasefire in the Middle East, will stress the main goal of his two-week mission abroad—Egyptian and Israeli negotiations over the reopening of the Suez Canal. United Nations-sponsored talks under Swedish Diplomat Gunnar Jarring have stalled. Discussions on reopening the Suez Canal appear to offer the only possibility of present negotiations.

Rogers hopes to get the two sides thinking this week about the practical problems in reopening Suez. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has two meetings scheduled with Rogers, and will probably spend both trying to persuade the Secretary to pressure Israel into agreeing to a withdrawal from the canal’s vicinity. The way to do this, in Egypt’s view, is to withhold further U.S. arms.

For its part, Israel would rather not spend so much time talking. Suggesting agenda items for Rogers’ two-day visit, Israel’s Foreign Ministry proposed that instead of engaging in lengthy conferences, the Secretary tour such disputed borders as the Golan Heights and the Jordan River’s West Bank. Since it is his first visit, suggested the Israelis, Rogers might better comprehend their concern over secure borders if he saw those borders himself. The U.S. rejected this idea. An American embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv explained that what Rogers really wanted to do was to talk.

Israel still hopes to change Rogers’ mind. After all, Israeli officials in Jerusalem say, there is really very little to discuss. Secretary Rogers in recent months has heard Israel’s position explained and expounded by every ranking Cabinet member, including eloquent, British-educated Foreign Minister Abba Eban and Premier Golda Meir, who sounds in English like the no-nonsense Milwaukee schoolteacher she used to be. ‘The Secretary knows our position well,” said an Israeli official last week. “It has been explained to him in Cambridge English, broken English and just plain English.”

Fedayeen Problems. One place where Rogers may make progress is Jordan. Hussein’s government has become increasingly isolated from its Arab allies as a result of the civil war eight months ago in which the King’s army routed the Palestinian guerrillas. Since then, the fedayeen have been far less active, and their few attacks have been directed mainly against Hussein’s forces rather than Israel. Last month terrorists rocketed an airbase in Mafrak, damaging two jet fighters, and severed an oil pipeline. Incidents along the Israeli border meanwhile have dropped to a total of only 28 between September and April, in comparison to 627 in the three months preceding the army-guerrilla showdown in Jordan.

Radical Arab leaders insist that the guerrillas were silenced on U.S. orders because they stood in the way of Rogers’ plan for a Middle East ceasefire. These radicals accuse Hussein, whose army and air force are among the few Arab troops still receiving U.S. supplies, of knuckling under to pressure from Washington. Libya’s fiery Muammar Gaddafi has cut off the $25 million annual subsidy that he had been paying King Hussein. Since Jordan’s economy was badly damaged by the civil war, Hussein is expected to ask Rogers to pick up this tab.

ammar Gaddafi has cut off the $25 million annual subsidy that he had been paying King Hussein. Since Jordan’s economy was badly damaged by the civil war, Hussein is expected to ask Rogers to pick up this tab.