Pravda Editorial on Middle East Seen As Evidence That Area is Regarded As Danger Spot

The Soviet Union’s proclamation in a Pravda editorial yesterday that its duty was “to prevent a new explosion” in the Middle East was seen by Western diplomatic observers here as evidence that the Kremlin considers the Middle East one of the most serious international danger spots. The editorial in the Soviet Communist Party organ said the USSR “is deeply convinced that despite all difficulties the Middle East crisis can and must be settled by political means. This is in the interests of all nations. The USSR will do everything necessary to facilitate a political settlement…and will not permit a new dangerous flare-up in that area which directly adjoins our southern borders.” The editorial reassured the Arabs that “from the first day of the Middle East crisis our country has been coming out on the side of the Arab people.” It assailed Israel as the chief obstacle to a peace settlement. But the London Daily Telegraph, in a dispatch from Moscow, said that some observers viewed the editorial as “a clear warning to the Arabs that they could not necessarily rely on Soviet support in a new war with Israel.” Pravda also warned the U.S. that it was contributing to Israeli “expansionist policies” and “reckless adventurism” by supplying Israel with Phantom Jets. The Telegraph said there was growing evidence that Russia has given itself the role of “policeman” in the Middle East in a sustained effort to reduce American influence there.

(The ambiguous aspects of the Pravda editorial were noted by U.S. analysts today, according to the Washington Post. “The Soviet Union plays on both themes simultaneously…keeping its options open on which course it will ultimately take. With a major expansion of Soviet naval penetration of the Mediterranean under way, U.S. experts pointed out, Soviet commitments in the Middle East are expanding,” the Post wrote. “At the same time, Soviet interest in gaining the reopening of the Suez Canal and other benefits of an abatement of Middle East tensions has also increased.” Some U.S. observers, according to the Post, saw in the Soviet line “a possible deliberate attempt to magnify the Israeli threat to the Arabs to help convince the Arab nations that now is the time to make substantive moves toward resolving the lingering crisis.”)

(In Washington, State Department officials gave no credence to published speculation about a possible Moscow-Washington summit conference on the Middle East in the final days of the Johnson Administration. Sources said that the U.S. Government had studied the Pravda editorial but had looked in vain for concrete evidence of Russian peaceful actions in that region that might make the Moscow appeal credible. Department officials deplored the outbreak of fighting between Jordan and Israel as serving to undermine the peace mission of UN envoy Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring.)