The Alexandria Duet

In Egypt last week, the Arab summit was over, but one important guest lingered on. He was Saudi Arabia's lean, eagle-beaked Premier Feisal, who during the week-long conference of Middle East leaders had huddled privately with Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser with a view to finding a solution in the bitter, two-year war in Yemen.

Both Feisal and Nasser now knew that military victory was probably impossible in the bleak, strife-torn land where some 40,000 Egyptian troops have been propping up a wobbly republican regime against the Saudi-backed royalist tribesmen who are trying to restore the Imam Mohamed el Badr to his throne. The civil war has cost scores of thousands of Yemeni lives as well as an estimated 10,000 Egyptian casualties. It has also put off the day all Arabs dream of when they can turn their united forces against Israel.

Brimming Heart. For Nasser, the very talks with Feisal were tacit admission that his forces were not really scoring ringing victory after ringing victory, a startling retreat from the extravagant claims he had been making in the past. Nasser also backed down from his pretense that the Yemen war was caused solely by infiltrators from Saudi Arabia and the British colony of Aden. In their official communique the two leaders promised to 1) cooperate fully to solve the existing differences between the various factions in Yemen, 2) work together in preventing armed clashes in Yemen, and 3) reach a solution by peaceful agreement.

Though there was no mention of removal of Egyptian troops from Yemen, the communique was widely hailed in the Arab world, and Washington called it a "statesmanlike action" and a "major step toward eventual peaceful settlement of the long civil war." To show the world their new fraternal affection, Nasser and Feisal warmly embraced at Alexandria's airport and called each other "brother." Feisal, who once muttered curses at Cairo's boss, said he was leaving Egypt "with my heart brimming with love for President Nasser."

Paper & Promises. Unfortunately, the people most concerned, the Yemenis themselves, have yet to be heard from. A hardy and hard-fighting race, with long memories for feuds and vendettas, it may take some talking before they will lay down their arms. Nasser can perhaps make the republicans do his bidding, even to dumping their ailing President, Abdullah Sallal, if necessary. But only the royalist princes, not Feisal alone, can dispose of Imam Badr. A possible compromise might lie in recognizing the Imam as a religious potentate without civil powers. But until the contending parties in Yemen reach agreement, the accord between Nasser and Feisal remains only a piece of paper and a lot of promises.

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