Prime Minister of Greece to Visit Jordan and Syria Less Than Two Months After He Visited Libya

Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s upcoming visits to Jordan and Syria this month — November 8-11 — is puzzling to observers of Greek policy in the Middle East. It will be his second trip to Arab countries in less than two months — he was in Libya September 23-24 — and political pundits wonder what he hopes to gain.

Jordan and Syria are hardly the best of friends. Syria supports Iran in the Iran-Iraq war while Jordan backs Iraq. Syria’s President, Hafez Assad, is a bitter foe of Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat and was responsible for his ouster from Lebanon last spring.

King Hussein of Jordan has met several times with Arafat in an attempt, so far fruitless, to work out a common position with respect to the Palestinian problem. Papandreou himself is friendly toward Arafat which could put him in an awkward position when he goes to Damascus.

Observers recall, moreover, that Papandreou’s visit to Syria in October 1981, shortly after he took office, was one of his biggest foreign policy fiascos. He found himself caught in the middle of inter-Arab disputes and antagonism on one hand and animosity toward Israel on the other. His efforts to play “the Arab card” came to naught.

VISITS SEEN AS CORRECTIVE ACTS

Some observers believe that his recent trip to Libya and his journey this week to Amman and Damascus are corrective acts intended to restore his credibility in the Arab world. He is not seeking financial deals, they say, for neither Jordan nor Syria are oil producers or wealthy nations.

What the Prime Minister hopes to achieve is a mediating role for Greece in the Arab-Israeli dispute. However small that role may be, he will be able to show the Greek public — 10 months before general elections — that his policies have made Greece an internationally respected country to which other countries turn for its good services.