A diplomatic offensive aimed at convincing the United States of the desirability of pinning its Middle Eastern policy on Egypt is about to be launched following Egypt’s unsuccessful efforts to secure withdrawal of British troops from the Suez Canal zone and other modifications of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty.
Preliminary moves by Egyptian diplomats to secure Secretary of State Dean cheson’s assent to high-level talks between Egypt and the United States are reported are to have met with a non-committal brushoff. Nevertheless, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Salah el Din will go to Washington later this month to try to convince the United States Government to entrust defense of the Middle East to an Egyptian Army armed and financed by the United States.
(In New York this week-end it was reported that in meetings between the Egyptian Foreign Minister and the American Secretary of State, the former offered to raise an army of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 man in Egypt for a permanent U.N. police force if come other nation equipped this force and the British Army were removed from Egyptian soil.)
Egyptian sources here indicated that the Egyptian thesis will be that neither Britain nor Israel can be relied on for the defense of the vital Suez Canal in the event of war with the Soviet Union. If Britain is to fulfill her Atlantic Council undertakings in Europe, according to the Egyptians, she will have neither sufficient arms nor troops to provide adequate defense of the Middle East.
As to the alternative of Israel defending the Canal, the Egyptians stress Israel’s announced “neutrality” policy and assert that the position of the Mapam, the left-wing party, within the Army would, in any case, be a neutralizing factor in any action the Israel Government might decide upon on the side of the Western Allies.
Egyptian circles here say they are aware that American financial and military help would be difficult unless the United States had assurances about Egyptian policy towards Israel. They say, therefore, that in exchange for American aid and support in securing ultimate evacuation of British troops from the Canal Zone, Egypt would be prepared to negotiate a general settlement with Israel. The lines of this settlement would be on the basis of present frontiers and the general status quo, but the Egyptians have not yet indicated what stand they would take on Jordan’s incorporation of Arab areas of Palestine.
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