Sadat's American Connection

"This is an opportunity to open a new page in relations between our countries," observed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when he accepted the credentials of Hermann F. Eilts, the U.S.'s first ambassador to Egypt in seven years. Sadat's remark was an understatement. Washington-Cairo relations have been improving so fast that it has been more like opening a new book.

The balmy new atmosphere was demonstrated by President Nixon's request to Congress last week for $250 million in aid for Cairo. The last time Egypt received such a sizable American grant was nearly two decades ago, before Washington abruptly canceled its promised financial support for Gamal Abdel Nasser's favorite project, the High Dam at Aswan, which was ultimately bankrolled by the Soviets. If Congress approves Nixon's request for money, which seems likely at the present time, $25 million will be used to clear the Suez Canal and $80 million to buy U.S. grains. With the remaining $145 million the Egyptians will rebuild war-demolished Suez City--an enormous project that could cost Egypt as much as $500 million. Israel will not object to an American contribution to the restoration of the devastated canal area since such an investment by Egypt would be a concrete and visible sign that Cairo would not lightly risk having its settlements destroyed in still another war with Israel. Additional assurance for the Israelis came last week when Sadat named a new Cabinet, which seemed to signal a commitment to peace. The Cairo press called it a "Cabinet of development" to succeed the "Cabinet of confrontation." Sadat appointed Abdel Aziz Hegazi, a British-educated moderate, as First Deputy Premier. Hegazi likes to remind government workers: "We must think as businessmen, not as bureaucrats."

Harshest Critic. A thorny question is whether the U.S. will provide Egypt with the weapons it thinks it needs. Sadat said publicly two weeks ago that he wanted to end his nation's 19-year-old arms dependence on the Soviet Union and would like to buy weapons from the U.S. Although America is Israel's primary source of military equipment, and several key American politicians would oppose arms sales to Egypt, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger did not rule out the possibility. He stated that the matter "should be carefully considered."

So far, the harshest critic of Sadat's pro-American policies is neighboring Libya and its President, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Last week Egyptian-Libyan relations hit a new low when Cairo implied that Gaddafi--a Moslem zealot who fancies himself Nasser's heir as the champion of the Islamic world--was personally linked to a plot to topple Sadat. As Egyptian officials tell it, a 38-year-old fanatic named Saleh Abdulla Sareya (a Palestinian with an Iraqi passport) led a group of youths armed only with knives in an attack against the Egyptian army's Technical Military Academy in suburban Cairo. They expected to encounter no resistance, to capture the academy's arsenal of weapons and vehicles, and then move on the headquarters building of the Arab Socialist Union where Sadat was giving a major speech. As implausible and bizarre as it sounds, Sareya apparently intended to arrest Sadat and proclaim himself Egypt's new President. He then supposedly planned to declare a republic based on Islamic fundamentalism, modeled after Libya.

At the academy, Sareya was opposed by guards and students who managed to quash the coup attempt, but not before eleven were killed and 27 wounded. By week's end the government had arrested 75 plotters: 16 young cadets, two navymen and 57 university and high school students. Libya's Minister of Interior Major Khweidly el Hamidy rushed to Cairo to piously insist that his government had nothing to do with the coup, but Sadat did not believe him. The Egyptian President gave him a tongue lashing that sent him scurrying back to Tripoli. Then Egyptian officials claimed that under questioning, Sareya admitted that last summer he had a long discussion with Gaddafi in Libya. These revelations triggered a Cairo press campaign against Gaddafi and led Ali Amin, editor of Cairo's influential newspaper Al Ahram, to call the Libyan ruler a "village idiot."

Sadat could not miss the long-term warning and the serious threat implicit in the strange incident. The plotters were obviously motivated by their angry opposition to Egypt's (hence Sadat's) current pro-Western policies. Throughout the Arab world--and within Egypt itself--there was deep apprehension that Sadat is going too far and too fast to the American side. That Egypt's President is willing to risk such criticisms is one indication of his determination to change the course of his nation. How much change he can effect will depend to a large extent on whether the Nixon Administration delivers the aid and peace that it has promised him.

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