Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Three moderate Arab states?Tunisia, Morocco and the Sudan openly endorsed the mission, however. Saudi Arabia, in a mild criticism, said the Sadat trip put the Arab world "in a precarious position." Actually, the Saudis had been briefed about the trip and its objectives by Sadat and had accepted the idea. But as head of a politically powerful Arab state and the spiritual leader of Islam, King Khalid could not remain completely silent amid all the other protests...
...Arab opposition to the trip was based on three specific worries: 1) Sadat might abandon the Pan-Arab cause and seek a separate peace agreement with Israel; 2) the Egyptian President, by setting foot in Israel, was granting de facto recognition to a state that radical Arabs refuse to accept; 3) in speaking to the Knesset, he was also acknowledging Israel's right to consider Jerusalem as its capital (even the U.S. maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv). Attempting to blunt such criticism in advance of his trip, Sadat last week flew to Damascus to confer with Syrian President Hafez...
...left Damascus to return to Cairo, following a chilly send-off from Assad. In a separate interview, Assad said that it was "painful that I could not convince him nor dissuade him from making the trip." Yasser Arafat also deplored the mission on the ground that it threatened Arab unity, and pleaded with Sadat to cancel the trip. The embarrassed Arafat was sitting in the Egyptian parliament as a guest when Sadat announced his willingness to visit Israel. "He looked at me and I stopped applauding," the P.L.O. leader told other Arabs...
...otherwise he faced little opposition at home. Although a skilled professional, the abrasive Fahmy is widely disliked by other Arab diplomats and has no power base in Egypt?least of all in the military, which for the moment backs Sadat's initiative. So do two of Egypt's three token opposition parties. Sadat also received the endorsement of one of his country's highest ranking Muslim leaders, Grand Sheikh Abdel Halim Mahmoud...
Vance's gloomy estimate discouraged and disillusioned Sadat. Despite lingering Israeli suspicions of his sincerity, the Egyptian President has been by far the most accommodating Arab leader in seeking new ways to achieve peace. Another extended period of waiting for that goal was something that Egypt?and Sadat?could not endure. His country was an economic cripple, with debts of $13 billon. It is now dependent on subsidies amounting to $5.4 billion from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the other Arab oil states merely to keep going. Egypt's parlous economic situation is certainly a political hazard for Sadat. Seventy...