Middle East: An Offer from Nasser

The diplomatic air was filled last week with talk of a possible Middle East settlement between Egypt and Israel—and the talk was kept aloft by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. Such hopes, of course, had been raised many times since last summer’s Arab-Israeli war, and never came to anything. This time, diplomats in London reported that the Egyptians had informed United Nations Mediator Gunnar Jarring that, if Israel withdrew its forces from the Sinai Peninsula under the terms of last November’s U.N. resolution, they would permit a U.N. peace-keeping force to occupy the territory. The report took on added interest when Nasser flew off to Moscow, postponing a planned trip to Yugoslavia so that he could spend more time talking with the Russians.

While there was no government reaction in Jerusalem, Israeli officials tended to dismiss the report as simply “good public relations,” and restated their position that no peace is possible unless the Egyptians negotiate directly with them. Many observers believe that it was the May 1967 withdrawal of U.N. troops from Sinai and Gaza at Nasser’s request that led to the war, but the question of U.N. troops is now only one of the problems to be dealt with in any peace negotiations. And before the troops return, the U.N. would certainly seek assurances that they would not be obliged to leave just because Nasser changed his mind.

Still, Nasser’s talks in the Kremlin, which came only a week after Jarring made a similar visit to Moscow, may presage some kind of break, however modest, in the Arab-Israeli deadlock. Though Nasser went to Russia partly to seek more Soviet arms, the Russians seem to be chafing at the high cost of such aid, and have lately even proposed an embargo on further arms shipments to Middle Eastern countries. It may just be that they are out to convince Nasser that his future depends on being a bit more pliable.