Diplomacy: Next Year in Riyadh?

Since the early 1970s Soviet diplomatic efforts in the Middle East have been focused on such radical states as Syria and Libya. Now Moscow seems intent on branching out. The U.S. State Department has quietly told Saudi Arabia that it would not oppose, as it has for decades, Riyadh’s proposal to establish full diplomatic relations with Moscow. Washington recognizes that the fervently anti-Communist Saudis are only recognizing the reality of growing Soviet power in the region. If no hitches develop, the Saudis and Soviets may go public with their friendship between Election Day and the 1989 presidential Inauguration, when the U.S. is preoccupied with the change of White House occupants.

The Soviets are also wooing Israel. Moscow, which severed relations with Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967, has offered to restore ties if a Middle East peace conference takes place. The catch: at the meeting, Israel would have to deal with the P.L.O., something Jerusalem has refused to do.