Keeping Devils at Bay

While most Arab leaders are obsessed with the problem of Israel, Saudi Arabia's King Feisal is more worried about his fellow Arabs. In neighboring Yemen, he faces a hostile and radical Republican regime that has constantly attacked him for six years. In South Arabia, also on his borders, the terrorist National Liberation Front recently drove out the pro-Feisal sheiks and sultans, renamed the country South Yemen and immediately cast covetous eyes on the sheikdoms of Muscat and Oman and the oilfields of the Persian Gulf, of which Feisal owns a good share. Everywhere he turns, Feisal sees the threat of the aggressive socialism of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, who has been trying to overthrow him for years.

Temporary Mask. The King appears to have patched up his longstanding feud with Nasser--but only on the surface. After the disastrous June war against Israel, Feisal promised to send $140 million a year to help repair Egypt's ruined economy; Nasser, in turn, agreed to withdraw the troops that had been propping up his puppet regime in Yemen. The agreement, however, is only a temporary mask that covers but does not diminish the basic enmity between the two men. "Without question," says a confidant of the King, "Nasser is the No. 1 devil to Feisal."

To keep the devil at bay, Feisal last week let it be known that he would not attend the Arab Summit Conference tentatively scheduled to begin in Rabat on Jan. 17. Feisal resents the fact that the conference and its subject--Israel--were arranged at Nasser's behest and convenience, fears that Nasser will put the bite on him for more money. Feisal has no intention of increasing his payments. Indeed, he has taken advantage of the Egyptian withdrawal from Yemen to promote a Royalist offensive against the Republican capital of San'a. If he can dislodge the Yemeni Republicans, Feisal hopes that he will then be in a position to contain the expansionist-minded N.L.F. regime in South Yemen and possibly even engineer the return of the sheiks to power.

So far, Feisal's hopes have been frustrated. The Royalist drive, which cost him an estimated $300 million in arms and outright bribes, bogged down last month when paid Royalist agents reneged on a promise to stage an uprising within the capital. Royalist troops still surround San'a, exchanging fire with Republican units by day and shelling the city at night, but they lack the tanks and armored trucks necessary to finish the job. The longer they delay, the harder their task becomes. The Republican army is fast getting arms and training from Russia, which has stepped into Nasser's place.

Rival Groups. Not all of Feisal's worries come from without. He must also contend with his 40-odd half brothers, all princes, who are maneuvering to place their own man on the throne when Feisal, now approaching 65 and suffering from stomach ulcers, retires or dies. So far, the King has managed to play one faction off against the other. To hold their brotherly love, he also distributes monthly allowances ranging from $8,444 for minor princes to $333,000 for the officially designated crown prince, sees that they get "commissions" on every foreign investment in Saudi Arabia.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.