The Wall Street Journal reported from Washington today that what U. S. policy makers, in the aftermath of the Iraqi coup, “may be confronted with now, they know, is anarchy or explosion” in the Middle East.
The paper said Administration officials, scanning the Near East horizon were considering the possibility that “the Iraqi upheaval could encourage similar moves by the substantial revolutionary elements in bordering nations–Syria and Jordan to the west, Saudi Arabia to the south, Iran to the East.”
The paper noted that while the Kassem regime was probably the most friendly to the Soviet Union of any in the region, and the most hostile to the United States, “nevertheless it also had opposed Egypt’s ambitious Gamal Abdel Nasser, had served as an effective counterpoise to Egyptian expansionism. Its replacement by pro-Nasser military men could easily, in this volatile part of the world, touch off far-reaching reactions.”
It said that “still smarting from Syria’s breakaway from his United Arab Republic last year, Egypt’s Nasser may try to erect a new Arab super-state of Egypt, Syria and Iraq.” It pointed out that “Cairo Radio is trumpeting the Iraq revolt as a vital step toward Arab unity,” The Wall Street Journal warned, however, that a Nasser move would “meet fierce resistance from Syria and possibly even from Iraq whose new leaders may prove more nationalist-minded than Nasser-minded.”
It predicted that “Nasser, frustrated by failure to entrench the revolutionary regime in Yemen and encouraged by the apparent friendship of the new Iraq Government, might instead step up subversive activities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, or even take direct military action against them.”
POSSIBILITY SEEN FOR ISRAEL TO ATTEMPT CHANGE IN BORDERS
The paper also asserted that “general Arab versus Arab battling might encourage Israel to attempt to straighten out its borders with a little extra territory or even to undertake ‘a preventive war’ against Nasser himself.”
According to the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent, the Iraqi developments “will almost certainly refuel a behind-the-scenes debate. Long waged within the Kennedy Administration, a minority of State Department and other officials have been arguing that Nasser remains an untrustworthy conspirator who will, at every chance, waste scarce Egyptian resources in foreign adventures. This minority argues that attempts to restrain him will never work for long and that U.S. aid should be curtailed or ended.”
The majority, the papers says, “has held that while Nasser will never be completely diverted from Pan-Arab aspirations, aid encourages him to devote himself chiefly to Egyptian internal problems and that he is in fact making commendable progress’ with them. This view argues a sterner attitude would merely drive him into closer ties with the Soviets.”
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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.
