Word: brezhnevs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bird Calls. After the warlike words that have ricocheted through the Middle East in recent months, such hopeful statements were like bird calls on a battlefield. The optimism was underscored last week by an unusual series of high-level conferences in the area. Soviet Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev may have canceled his Middle Eastern trip for real or diplomatic reasons of health (see story page 35), but he was scarcely missed. The Shah of Iran, intent on reinforcing Arab ties, flew to Amman for two days with Jordan's King Hussein and on to Cairo for five more days...
Nonetheless, there is strong suspicion that Brezhnev's "illness" was more diplomatic than physical. TIME Moscow Correspondent John Shaw reported that Fahmy and Gamassy did not meet Brezhnev in a sanatorium but were driven in a high-speed, police-escorted convoy to Brezhnev's hunting lodge at Zavidovo, about 80 miles north of Moscow...
Such a diplomatic illness may have been caused by the inability of the Egyptians and the Soviets to agree on the future course of Middle East negotiations. Brezhnev told Fahmy and Gamassy that before he would go to the Middle East, Cairo must accept the Geneva Conference as the sole route for reaching a negotiated peace. As the conference's co-host (along with the U.S.), the Soviet Union would be able to exercise a powerful, direct influence on the negotiations and perhaps even deadlock them. Sadat apparently balked: he wants to give Kissinger another chance to pressure Israel...
Faint New Hope. Fahmy and Gamassy went to Moscow, partly in hope of convincing Brezhnev that the Soviet Union should resume large-scale arms shipments to Egypt. Since the end of the October war, the Soviets have poured massive supplies of arms into Syria, while Israel, thanks to the U.S., has more than replaced its matériel losses. Egypt, on the other hand, has been left without adequate replacements for its Russian-made arms. One condition Moscow sets for arms shipments: a return of Soviet advisers to Egypt...
...With the Brezhnev visit now delayed indefinitely, there is a new opportunity for Kissinger to push ahead with talks leading to a further pullback of Israeli troops on the Sinai and Golan fronts. Cairo's mood last week reflected a faint new hope that he might succeed...