Word: sadat
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...policy of alliance with the devil is not objectionable until it becomes favorable to the devil." So spoke President Anwar Sadat back in 1972 when he stunned the world with the announcement that the Soviets and their advisors were no longer welcome in Egypt, and that he personally would guide his country through peace or war in the future. Twenty thousand soldiers packed up and left for home while a humiliated Moscow tried to make do without a valuable strategic base in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Thus in one bold stroke. Sadat undid a close military alliance (established...
...expulsion of the Russian, opened the way to better relations with the United States and the golden opportunity of a negotiated settlement with Israel at Camp David For all Sadat's foresight and diplomatic dexterity, though, his ambitious goals never came to fruition, cut off by a savage assassination plot in October of 1981. And Egypt's new president, though he has avoided any dramatic pronouncements clearly wants to make some changes in his country's international standing...
Isolated after the agreement with Israel, Egypt under Mubarak has actively sought a rapprochement with the rest of the Arab world. The reason is partly financial--without investment from these off-rich nations, economic development will remain difficult, if not impossible. While carefully vowing to uphold Sadat's commitments, Mubarak used the Israeli invention of Lebenon last summer as a pretest to a recal his ambassador from [arme] and attacked Prime Minister Begin for "sounding the drums of war and flexing the muscles of tyrannous force." Though Libya and Syria remain of to Mubarak's overtures, Soudi Arabia, Jordan...
Only by reestablishing a relationship with the Soviet Union can Mubarak effectively complete the betrayal of Sadat's mission. Official rhetoric about "non-alignment," an old favorite of Nasser's back in the 1960s, has reappeared and would seem to signal an impending change in policy. Thus in a recent article in Foreign Affairs, an Egyptian diplomat called for "a positive and constructive Soviet contribution to the peace efforts, especially in regard to the framework of Camp David" and added that his country "would like nothing more than to turn a new page and establish friendly relations with the Soviet...
...Camp David, Mubarak now clearly believes that close association with the United States is more a liability than an asset in helping reestablish Egyptian influence among the Arab nations. But whether he will risk all and gamble beyond just an exchange of ambassadors with Moscow is hard to say. Sadat had the strength of character and the nearly megalomaniacal confidence to reverse his country's course almost overnight: Mubarak, an unglamorously disciplined ex-air force officer, has to deal with a Middle East more severely polarized by superpower politics than ever before, and the artful game of switching loyalties...