The division and disarray in the Arab world caused by Egyp- tian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel were reflected today at the opening of the General Assembly debate on the situation in the Middle East. The two principal speakers, Syria and Jordan, displayed differing reactions to the Sadat visit.
Syrian Ambassador Mowaffak Allaf sharply denounced Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem as “a stab in the back” of the Arab people and termed it “the first surrender before the Zionist racist force.” On the other hand, Jordanian Ambassador Hazem Nuseibeh gave a moderate speech and refrained from any comment on Sadat’s trip.
The vehement and stinging attack of the Syrian Ambassador on Egypt brought a prompt response from Egyptian Ambassador Ismet Abdel Meguid who walked out of the chamber in protest.
Four other members of the Egyptian delegation joined Meguid in the walk-out. The Egyptian envoy told reporters that he had left the Assembly hall to protest the attack on his President. He said he will address the Assembly tomorrow but would not reply to the Syrian attack. Meguid’s aide remained behind but read a newspaper while the Syrian spoke.
“I was very, very much unhappy and sorry to hear the speech of the representative of Syria,” Meguid told reporters outside the Assembly hall. “I wanted to show my attitude. It was very regrettable…. I don’t think it is necessary to listen to those insults.”
SAYS SADAT ENDED ISRAEL’S ISOLATION
Allaf said that Sadat’s visit damaged the Arab cause because it saved Israel from its isolation and was a de facto recognition of Israel’s seizure of Jerusalem. It was also, he said, a surrender to Israeli insistence on imposing direct negotiations while still occupying Arab land.
The Syrian envoy declared that Sadat, “one of the heroes of the October (1973) war,” the successor to the late President Nasser, went to Jerusalem to shake the hands of the “known terrorist” Menachem Begin, “the war criminal” Moshe Dayan and kissing the cheek of “the racist” Golda Meir.
Allaf said that Syria is ready to make peace with Israel only if the Jewish State shows readiness to withdraw from all the occupied territory and to recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to an independent state on their own land.
The Jordanian Ambassador, who followed Allaf to the Assembly podium, said that his country is willing to reach a settlement with Israel “provided Israel is willing to reciprocate by withdrawing from all the occupied territories, including, of course, Arab Jerusalem and restoring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
Nuseibeh only indirectly referred to the Sadat visit when he remarked that he realized that the Arab delegations had been placed “in a kind of disarray and confusion in consequence of the instant and electronic instrumentalities of contemporary diplomacy.” The Saudi Arabian representative, Jamil Baroody, also did not refer to the Sadat visit in his address to the Assembly. Israel is expected to address the debate on Friday.
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