President Anwar Sadat’s announcement last night that he was abrogating the Soviet-Egyptian friendship treaty of 1971, was seen by observers here as motivated, in part at least, by his desire to away U.S. opinion in favor of American-Egyptian arms deals.
These observers pointed out that the Soviet pact had been, in effect, emptied of much of its meaningful content years ago. In 1972, Sadat drove out the 20,000 Soviet advisors then stationed in Egypt and that single act marked a sharp deterioration in ties with Russia which have proceeded fitfully ever since.
The Egyptian President’s speech yesterday, therefore, had a good deal of dramatic and demonstrative significance, but much less practical meaning according to these observers, Similarly dramatic and exaggerated, the observers said, was Sadat’s assertion that unless he received Soviet spare parts his arms would be “junk” within 18 months.
Firstly, the observers pointed out, Egypt is still getting Soviet spare parts and supplies, though admittedly not in the same abundance as in past years. Secondly, Sadat and his aides are actively shopping around for weapons and Egypt is altogether unlikely to remain defenseless.
Both the dramatization of the treatment of Moscow and of the arms supply prospect were intended, therefore, the observers said, to influence U.S. opinion which is currently divided over the Administration’s plan to launch an “arms supply relationship” with Cairo. Official sources in Israel have not as yet commented on Sadat’s speech.
(In Washington, the State Department said today it had no comment or reaction to Sadat’s announcement. Department spokesman Robert Funseth said he was not aware that the United States government had been informed in advance by Cairo of Sadat’s proposal.)
STATEMENT VIEWED WITH SKEPTICISM
(In New York, two Zionist leaders greeted Sadat’s statement with skepticism. Mrs. Faye Schenk, chairman of the American Zionist Federation, stated: “The timing of this latest act is too close to the scheduled United States Administration request for arms sales to Egypt not to be viewed as an Egyptian attempt to involve itself in American politics for military gain.”
(Mrs. Schenk noted that Egypt has several times in the past publicly proclaimed its independence from the USSR but during the Yom Kippur War, Egypt attacked Israel “with Soviet weaponry, Soviet personnel and Soviet technology and know-how.” Since then, she noted, Soviet equipment continued to pour into Egyptian ports. “Should there be another Israel-Arab war in the future, Egyptians will be quick to ask for and the Soviets quick to offer military aid.”
(Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, said that despite Sadat’s announcement, the situation remains the same as far as Israel is concerned regarding a re-armed Egypt. “The United States should not be a replacement for the Soviet Union in the supply of arms to Egypt that could be turned against Israel,” he stated.
(The LZA, Dr. Shapiro added, “supports every form of improvement in the quality of life of the Arab population, but vigorously protests the supply of arms to Egypt and any other country in the Middle East who have not declared their intention to pursue a policy of peace with Israel.”)
(Moscow Radio, in an Arabic language broadcast monitored in Washington, warned that those who are seeking to abrogate the Egyptian-Soviet treaty “bear a grave responsibility for its consequences.” The broadcast did not mention Sadat by name.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
