Provocative Reading

Al Ahram Editor Mohammed Hassanein Heikal's weekly column is always the most provocative reading in Cairo, but even Heikal exceeded himself last week. Insisting that he was "not imagining things," Heikal reconstructed what he believed "had gone on" in the Kremlin when Soviet leaders learned that their forces were being expelled from Egypt. Excerpts:

Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, visibly disturbed, repeated a question posed by Navy Chief Sergei Gorshkov: "Is our Mediterranean fleet going to go back to depending on Odessa for supplies and fresh water? This would mean we will have to contract our navy in the Mediterranean."

Grechko also argued that "the detente that took place in Moscow between us and the Americans is important. But our struggle with the Americans is continuing, even if it is only a rivalry. Are we going to leave the Middle East for them to do as they please?"

Soviet Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev called for an intelligence estimate of external influences on Egypt's decision. "Relations between Cairo and Washington are bad," he was told.

Brezhnev also called for a reading on Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and internal pressures on Sadat by "hostile elements." "Gaddafi is a mystery to us," he was told by an Arab affairs specialist. To which Brezhnev, by Heikal's reconstruction, testily snapped: "We don't want questions from you. We want answers."

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