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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 4, 1984
Perhaps the most shocking news for Washington was the warning
last Tuesday from the conservative Saudis that they were prepared
to take their weapons purchases and up to $13 billion (b9
billion) in other trade to Moscow if the Americans were not more
cooperative on arms sales•..• The Reagan administration recently
cancelled an offer to sell 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles
to Saudi Arabia, and 1,600 to Jordan, because of congressional
pressure...•
Many diplomats suggest that the opportunity for the Russians to
play a big part in the region has not been so great in more than a
decade, since their decline in influence after the 1973 war. Yet
Soviet observers in Beirut admit that prestige was inherited
rather than earned. Beirut's DAILY STAR commented: ".!!,y far the
biggest losers have been those in the Middle East who put their
trust in the U.S. and who sought in vain to reconcile contradic
tions Tn American policy. Lebanon counts its dead. Moderate
Palestinians see hopes vanish of a negotiated peace. King Hus
sein fears for the safety of his state.
Gulf rulers wonder
whether to hedge their bets on the U.S. as a guarantor of their
security.".•.
Egypt, which has had rocky relations with Moscow since the expul
sion of 17,000 military staff in 1972 and the expulsion of the
Russian ambassador three years ago, recently announced that full
diplomatic relations would be restored "soon".... Soviet in
fluence in Baghdad has soared almost overnight, after the signing
of an agreement for help in a new nuclear power plant in Iraq and
the resumption of large-scale supplies of arms...•
In the Gulf,.•.diplomats say the Saudis are so frustrated with
the U.S. that they may allow stronger eastern bloc connections
with the kingdom's sister states to develop.
The reason behind Moscow's tilt toward Iraq in the raging gulf war is ex
plained by William Drozdiak of the WASHINGTON POST (no date given, but in
April):
The Soviet Union has agreed to build Iraq's first nuclear power
plant, a commitment that emphasizes Moscow's new desire to
strengthen relations with President Saddam Hussein's government
after a period of estrangement.... However, it is not Iraq's
first reactor. A French-supplied nuclear research facility was
destroyed in an Israeli air attack on June 7, 1981, and is
reportedly beyond repair••••
Moscow abandoned its line of cautious neutrality in the gulf war
and tilted toward Baghdad last autumn, when Iran's Islamic
government executed leaders of the Tudeh Communist Party and es
calated its verbal tirades against the Soviet Union "as the jun
ior Satan," second in evil only to "the great Satan," the United
States.•.. "The Russians once felt that Iran was the bigger prize
but they now see nothing to gain in dealing with [ Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini
I
s ] regime," a western diplomat said••..
The Reagan administration's recent condemnation of Iraq for using
chemical weapons against Iran seems to have stalled momentum