Crisis in Damascus

...intervention to "overt armed aggression" by a Communist-controlled state...

...Embassy members in Damascus—Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Malloy, military attache...

...Already Syrian officials are trying hard, because of the furor the coup has created in their own orbit, to dispel the notion that they have gone into the Soviet camp...

...But the pro-Soviet group's ascendancy, and reports that "progressives" are already being moved into civilian positions, make it vital to recognize that: • John Foster Dulles's "Northern Tier" defense system, joining Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Britain in the Baghdad Pact, has been finessed with an ease that makes the Maginot Line look good...

...Syria, after all, is the only country in the Middle East where the CP exists legally...

...One thing is certain: An attitude of "don't look and maybe it will go away" would be folly...

...In any event, the vague kind of "freeze" being discussed would not prevent the launching of subversive activities from Syria...

...The issue may come up again when the General Assembly convenes on September 17...

...At the very back of this Northern Tier, Moscow may now secure air and naval bases, thus entering the Eastern Mediterranean in force...

...For a brief period, the rebels seemed on the verge of success...

...In addition, it would draw fire from Israel...

...Howard E. Stone, attache and assistant political officer, and Vice Consul Francis J. Jetton—had plotted to overthrow the government of President Shukri al-Kuwatly and Premier Sabri el-Assali...

...Perhaps inquiry about such opportunities is one of the tasks of Loy W. Henderson, State Department Middle East trouble-shooter...

...At the moment, he surely does not seem inclined to do a complete somersault...

...Ambassador James S. Moore Jr...

...Signal for the latest difficulty was the charge that three U.S...

...hopes to the contrary notwithstanding, the politically unreliable al-Kuwatly and el-Assali had little power...

...Iraq is the only country that has not signed an armistice agreement with Israel, and its troops would not be welcomed next door...

...Lebanese sources insist he is a card-carrying Communist, although no proof is available...

...Twice in the past, Turkey has hinted that it might go into Syria if the latter came under Kremlin domination...

...Should the pro-Soviet coup in Syria go unchallenged, Moscow would be able to execute its carefully-drawn plan for keeping the Middle East in continuous ferment Crisis in Damascus By Myron Kolatch The emergence of pro-Soviet forces at the head of Syria's ruling Army marks the third crisis in six months within the Arab world...

...General Bizri also implied that wider purges might be forthcoming as the result of the uncovering of a plan to assassinate himself, the powerful left-wing Army Intelligence chief Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Hamid Serraj, and new Deputy Chief of Staff Brigadier Amin Nufouri, who conveniently jumped from the conservatives to the extremists...

...A Turkish advance now, however, would undoubtedly be condemned by the UN...

...Iraq would be similarly censured if it intervened...

...Only a little outside fanning is needed to rekindle the flames that almost consumed Jordan so recently...

...It also expelled Dr...

...action would be cited as proof that America seeks to take up where the British and French left off...

...Of course, there is the possibility of action from other quarters...

...Its press, radio and official pronouncements have been more sev erely anti-Western than those of any other Arab state, including Kg\pt...

...they simply feel that Moscow's policies can best advance their interests...

...This is admittedly a delicate, difficult task, but not impossible...

...Syria controls one-third of the oil coming from the Middle East...

...More recently, Arab nationalist mentors precipitated a conflict of rare medieval quality when they got the Imam (religious leader) of Oman to rebel against the authority of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman...

...A quarantine of Syria by surrounding states is not likely to prove very effective, either...

...Now that these questions have been answered, the West must at last come to grips with certain serious dangers...

...Yassin Zakaria, second secretary of the Syrian Embassy, and stated that U.S...

...Last week, Henderson suddenly departed for Istanbul, where Turkish Premier Adnan Menderes and Kings Faisal and Hussein are conferring...

...If they succeed, they will gain the time they need to consolidate their strength—to build up the political and military forces required by Moscow's carefully-drawn plan for keeping the Middle East in continuous ferment...

...Nor can one rule out the possibility of a Moscow-backed war against Israel...

...True, lack of a land link with Syria may make it difficult for Russia to turn it into a full satellite, even though Albania likewise is cut off from the Soviet Empire...

...And acting Syrian Defense Minister Khaled el-Azm returned from Moscow laden with Soviet economic and technical-aid promises as these developments were taking place...

...In March, moreover...

...The Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline), owned by U.S...

...The only questions were when and on what pretext they would take over...

...interests, runs through the country, and so does the double line of the Iraq Petroleum Company, owned jointly by British, Dutch, French and U.S...

...He is also scheduled to visit several other countries in the region...

...Turkey, the only North Atlantaic Treaty Organization country bordering on the Soviet Union, at odds with Greece and feeling somewhat estranged from the other NATO members over Cyprus, will be further hemmed in because it has a 400-mile boundary with Syria...

...Even before then, Mideast observers were pointing to the fact that, U.S...

...Almost immediately, it was apparent that the "plot" was designed to provide a ready reason for removal of relatively moderate General Tewfik Nizamuddin as Army Chief of Staff and his replacement by Afif Bizri, who was rapidly upped from lieutenant colonel to major general by Presidential decree...

...President Eisenhower has noted that the situation does not "justify any kind of action at all under the Mideast Doctrine," which specifically limits U.S...

...To begin with, this would require the cooperation of Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, who can hardly be counted on for unwavering support...

...would not return to Damascus from his home leave...

...The assassination was to be carried out, Bizri said, by "gangsters made in America...

...General Bizri, it is worth remembering, is an Arab-Israeli war hero...

...Officials in Damascus also insist that the country will rigidly maintain its "positive neutrality" position...

...But King Hussein finally managed to quell the uprising with the aid of a $30-million United States transfusion...

...120 Army officers successfully defied the President's efforts to have them shifted to less sensitive posts by threatening to overrun Damascus, and el-Azm refused to countersign the order...

...Iraq's King Faisal and current political leaders have been going along with the West for some time now, but there, too, discontent is latent and such groups as the National Congress party are eagerly looking for the support they need to bring it to the surface...

...General Bizri, incidentally, is a native of Lebanon who fought in Syria along with French colonial forces and remained there during World War II...

...The radical turn of events in the last two weeks is not wholly surprising...

...The Arabs sought to convert this into a fullblown attack on the West by bringing the matter before the United Nations Security Council, but the Council refused to hear the debate...

...Confronted with this cynical accusation, Washington declared Syrian Ambassador Farid Zeineddine persona non grata —a step it had not taken since ousting the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in 1915...

...And direct U.S...

...It has further been employed as an excuse for wholesale removal of conservative officers in favor of pro-Soviet men...

...interests...

...All that remains, therefore, is to convince Syria's concerned neighbors that they must seize the initiative...

...Asked about this last week, he said that Syrian Army members are not supposed to have political affiliations but declared: "If you explain a Communist as any man who loves his country, then I am a Communist...

...Disrupting the latter's flow can be a hard economic blow for Iraq, as it learned during the Suez war ten months ago, when Syria sabotaged the lines...

...In April, nationalist-Communist elements in Jordan, sparked by Egyptian-Syrian propaganda, arms and money, attempted to overrun the little kingdom from which the last British troops had just departed...

...What can be done...

...There are groups in Damascus that would, if properly encouraged, be happy to work toward dislodging the new command...

...Even Lebanon, probably the most advanced and democratic Arab League country, has been the scene of Syrian-inspired uprisings that could easily be intensified...

...The strings were being manipulated by a left-nationalist triumvirate consisting of Intelligence chief Serraj, Ba'ath (Socialist Resurrectionist) party leader Akram Haurani and Communist boss Khalid Bafc-dash...

...Here the British, combining the talents of decades long past and with such modern weapons as the printing press and jets, obligingly agreed to help the Sultan restore his power...

...In fact, the Turks actually massed several divisions on their southern border during the Suez war, when it appeared that Russian "volunteers" might enter the Mideast through Syria, and again last April, when Syria's army seemed ready to support the anti-Western upheaval in Jordan...

...Finally, with a firm operating base Moscow could easily keep the Middle East in a constant state of turmoil...