Word: golan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Swinging through other Middle East countries on his way home, Kissinger received a mixed reception. Saudi Arabia's King Khalid bestowed a tentative blessing but warned that any Sinai disengagement must be followed by further negotiations over the future of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Jordan's King Hussein was in a frosty mood, principally because Congress has drastically chopped his request for $350 million worth of antiaircraft weaponry, including 14 batteries of Hawk missiles. In Damascus, Syria's President Hafez Assad was courteous but stiff; later Assad's Baath Party called the Sinai agreement "strange...
Clearly there are many unanswered questions involving the aftermath of the accord. If some kind of withdrawal agreement is worked out−possibly next year−between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights, will the U.S. also be required to provide electronics experts for this volatile front? And if so, will Congress approve? What will be the mood of America if any technicians are accidentally killed in an outbreak of fighting in Sinai? Even if Congress approves this year's aid package to Israel, will it go along with requests for an estimated $10 billion in new equipment...
Essential Step. Despite all the agony the agreement has caused, it is still only an interim settlement, and the easiest part to solve of the many-sided Arab-Israeli conflict. There is much less room for give on the Golan Heights, which are disputed by both Israel and Syria; both countries appear intractable on the issues. A solution to the Palestinian problem is nowhere in sight, and there seems little hope for compromise on ownership of the West Bank of the Jordan. Jerusalem is coveted by both sides for its religious shrines and its symbolic authority, but the Israelis...
Even if Israel and Egypt do reach an early accord, Middle East tensions will not automatically diminish. On at least one other Israeli-Arab border-the Golan Heights-they will probably increase. Another U.N. mandate on the Golan expires in November, and there is no immediate prospect of any disengagement talks on this front. Syria and Israel both suspect each other of preparing pre-emptive attacks. Last week also, Israel accused Jordan's King Hussein of massing troops for a possible attack-even though the border is quiet and record numbers of Palestinians are crossing the open bridges...
...removal of the U.N. troops in the Sinai. The whole problem of ending the mandate, as one Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem put it, is "a plate of legal spaghetti." Legally, the U.N. Security Council supervises both the peace-keeping forces in the Sinai and the observers on the Golan Heights, and last week Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim began summoning Council members to discuss how the mandate could be kept alive. Practically speaking, however, the U.N. troops could not remain in place if one side demanded their ouster. If they were forced out by Egypt, the situation could be ominous...