World Events in a Month

This corner is edited by: Ziyadeh Awwad

On Wednesday, October 17, His Excellency Mr. Camille Nimr Chamoun left Beirut on an official visit to Tehran that lasted seven days. His Excellency was given a full official and popular reception upon his arrival in the Iranian capital, and the first to receive His Excellency were His Majesty the Shah, the government, and the military commanders.

The Suez problem, and the question of the repeated Zionist attacks on Jordan, remain the talk of international political circles and popular circles alike, given the connection of each of the two problems with the issues of peace in the world, and especially in the region of the Middle East, which one leading American statesman described as the mouth of a volcano threatening to erupt.

The United Nations Security Council met on the fifth of October to consider the Suez crisis in the light of the three London conferences called by Britain, France, and America to bring into being the association of the users of navigation in the Egyptian canal. Yet this association has remained to this hour a name without substance, for all the meetings that preceded it and the announcements of its administrative, financial, and banking organization. What draws attention, however, and gives grounds for optimism, are the six points which the Security Council approved at its latest meeting, as a prelude to a solution to come gradually by way of negotiation with Egypt, namely:

1 — The agreement of all parties on freedom of navigation in the canal.

2 — Respect for Egyptian sovereignty.

3 — Administration of the canal in isolation from politics.

4 — The fixing of navigation tolls by agreement with Egypt.

5 — The allotment to Egypt of a fair share of the tolls.

6 — In the event any dispute arises, recourse shall be had to arbitration.

But alongside this atmosphere of optimism created by the six principles came the Soviet Union's veto of the second part of the Franco-British draft, concerning international supervision of Suez — a magic stick in the wheel of the international talks. The Westerners no sooner woke to the result of the vote than they found themselves in need of a greater concession from their demands, and they agreed, hesitantly, to hold new direct negotiations with Egypt, which will not go beyond the beginning of next month, and which may take place in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations. Thus one last riddle remains awaiting solution: how far the Geneva negotiations will succeed. On the whole, Egypt has so far remained the shining victor in the arena of the contest with France and Britain — and we do not say America, for Mr. Dulles has so far played the part of the forestalled initiator, at one moment attacking colonialism, at another shoring it up with caution and reserve, as election policy requires.

And who knows! The Indian Minister of State, Mr. Menon — and behind him Pandit Nehru — may be the ablest mediator between Egypt and the West; he alone knows what Washington harbors of views on the Suez problem, and he has spent the last few days between New York, London, and Cairo, presenting draft solutions to the standing Suez crisis, among whose results, kept secret until now, was what passed at the recent Paris meeting between Sir Eden and Mr. Lloyd, and Premier Mollet and France's Foreign Minister Christian Pineau. This the coming days will reveal.

Israel — famous as she is for exploitation and for watching for opportunities — took advantage of the Security Council's meetings on the night of October 9–10 and carried out a large, treacherous attack on the Arab village of Qalqilya; she destroyed a police post and sowed, after her criminal habit, terror and fear and destruction in that peaceful village — in revenge for the killing of two Israelis who fell in an ambush in the occupied territories. But the Arab Legion and the National Guard stood firm against the aggression and cost the attackers hundreds of dead and wounded, besides the heavy war matériel the aggressors left behind them.

This wicked attack had a painful echo in Arab circles: their kings and presidents hastened to get in touch with His Majesty the Jordanian monarch, assuring His Majesty of their resolve to wage war against Israel at the first attack she makes on Jordan. Syria and Egypt were the first to send arms of every kind to the Jordanian army, and Iraq announced its readiness to send large forces to Jordan — a matter which was the subject of negotiations between the Jordanian and Iraqi sides, and for the sake of which the Crown Prince of Iraq came to Amman at the head of an official Iraqi delegation and held numerous talks with His Majesty King Hussein and the members of the Jordanian government and the chiefs of its general staff, ending in a joint communiqué in which complete agreement was announced on decisive action whenever the need requires it.

At the end of the next-to-last week of October the Security Council held an emergency meeting upon Jordan's complaint against Israel, in the course of which it heard the delegate of Jordan, who told the members of the Council that the savage Israeli deeds in the Arab lands can find no apter description than savagery and barbarism. The Security Council adjourned its sessions for consultation and to fix the date of the next meeting.

On the morning of Sunday, October 22, the general parliamentary elections were held in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. They were marked by complete calm and quiet, by an increase in the number of voters, and by the victory of three Communists.

These elections resulted in the National Socialist Party winning the largest parliamentary bloc as a party. As for the new government that will issue from these elections, it appears that it will be a coalition government.