Small-Town Boy with Shopping List

"I know that President Carter is a believer," Egypt's President Anwar Sadat said last week before leaving for a two-day visit to Washington. "I feel happy that I'm going to meet him [because] the believer is ruled by morals and principles."

Chances are the two men should get along well. Among other things, Sadat is as devout a Moslem as Carter is a Baptist. Moreover, both are small-town boys who talk about the inspiration they still gain from their home towns. Sadat's Plains is a Nile Delta village named Mit Abou Alkoum (the Place of the Heap), which Sadat has called "an unfailing source of morality, common sense and perspective."

Crushing Burden. Sadat has twice read Carter's autobiography, Why Not the Best?, and will be studying the book again as he jets across the Atlantic.* The Egyptian President is already somewhat in Carter's debt; after the mid-January food riots in Cairo, the U.S. advanced Egypt a critically needed $500 million in aid. What most impressed Sadat was that he did not even have to ask Carter for the money.

For several months, Sadat has been busily building up his position as the Arab world's primary peacemaker. He has told dozens of visiting U.S. Congressmen: "I am not preparing for war, I am preoccupied with peace." With the support of the Saudis, he healed a rift with Syria's President Hafez Assad that had been caused by the Syrian incursion into Lebanon last May. Prior to the summit meeting of Arab and African leaders in Cairo last month, he got Jordan's King Hussein to agree to federation with a still-to-be-formed Palestinian state. This week in Washington he will argue that the Arab world is basically united (or at least as united as it is ever likely to be) and that the time is ripe for a return to Geneva and an attempt to achieve an overall peace settlement in the Middle East.

Sadat has a theory that, valuable as his friend Henry Kissinger was during the period of step-by-step agreements, a strong Chief Executive in Washington is essential for a settlement at Geneva. He believes that only a strong U.S. President can convince the Israelis that they should return to Geneva; that all parties, including the Palestinians, should be represented; and that a settlement can actually be achieved. Sadat also insists, of course, on a return to the pre-1967 borders. But he argues that in the context of an overall settlement, the matter of "secure borders" is no longer a problem; Israeli troops could patrol those frontiers along with Arab and foreign soldiers.

Like many other Middle East visitors, Sadat will also bring a shopping list. He will tell Carter of Egypt's need to buy "defensive" weapons, mainly antitank missiles and some F-5 fighter planes. Presumably, he will point out that since he kicked the Soviet technicians out of Egypt five years ago, the Russians have sold $1.5 billion in sophisticated weaponry to his unfriendly neighbor, Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Although the U.S. now provides Egypt with about $900 million a year in aid (second only to what it gives Israel), its only previous military sale to Egypt consisted of six C-130 transports ordered last year.

On a grander scale, Sadat may also argue for $8 billion to $10 billion over the next three years to put into action a sort of Arab Marshall Plan. He will presumably tell Carter about his dream for reclaiming some 2 million acres of Egypt's western desert and creating new towns and farms there. Egypt has the expertise for such a massive project, he will point out, but first it must be relieved of the crushing burden of maintaining an army of 850,000 men--and the only way to do this is through a peace settlement.

On his first meeting, Sadat does not expect Carter to commit himself to any of these proposals. But he is convinced that Carter will at least give him a sympathetic ear.

* Meanwhile, Carter disclosed to TIME, he has been boning up for the meeting by reading a thick, specially prepared volume about Sadat.

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