Semi-United They Stand

Undismayed by the United Arab Republic's bitter try at togetherness, Saudi Arabia and Jordan also have the urge to merge. Their alliance, which a Jordanian diplomat described as a "semi-union," was formed last week after three days of talks between crusty old King Saud, 61, and Jordan's gritty young King Hussein, 26, whose Hashemite grandfather King Abdullah was chased out of the Arabian peninsula in 1919 by Saud's father.

The pact between the two dynasties, announced in Saud's summer capital of Taif after the monarchs and their retainers had polished off a barbecued camel, will integrate their armed forces and economic policies. In fact, Saud and Hussein have been drawing closer for several years, impelled by common enemies--Israel and Gamal Abdel Nasser--whom they both hate more than they ever hated each other. Both are lumped together by Radio Cairo as "reactionary, feudal, degenerate, corrupt monarchies bleeding the Arab people." Oil-rich Saud has granted some economic aid to poor, refugee-swollen Jordan, and Hussein has become a frequent visitor to Saud's vast, anachronistic fief.

The new pact dissolves all barriers to trade and travel between the two countries, and makes the usual vow to regain "sacred Arab rights in Palestine." The promise of mutual military support strengthens the regimes of both Saud and Hussein. By itself. Saud's ragtag soldiery would be of little use in a full-scale war, but Hussein's crack, British-trained Arab Legion is the best of all the Arab armies.

The new partners invited other Arab nations to join their alliance and received a familiar response. From exile, where he is plotting Saud's overthrow, Saud's brother, Prince Talal, called the agreement "a conspiracy to fight against the movement of Arab liberation." Cried Nasser's press: "An unholy alliance between outmoded monarchs."

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