MIDDLE EAST: Gasoline by an Open Fire

"The hot stage of the battle with Israel has begun," Egypt's President Anwar Sadat told university professors in Cairo last week. Sadat, preparing to leave on his second trip to the Soviet Union since he became President a year ago, wanted to remind the world that Egypt had friends in Moscow who would help him keep the stage very well heated indeed.

It certainly seemed that way when the two sides met in the Kremlin. Sadat and his entourage were greeted with Soviet-style bear hugs and busses from Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Premier Aleksei Kosygin and President Nikolai Podgorny. And, while the Russians stressed their interest in a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, the communiqué that followed ten hours of talks mentioned "measures aimed at further strengthening the military might of Egypt." That announcement triggered the possibility of additional U.S. arms shipments to Israel.

Delivering more weapons to either side at this point is rather like stockpiling gasoline around an open fire. Sadat has pronounced 1971 the "year of decision" in the conflict with Israel, and officials in Jerusalem are all but daring him to try something. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers is pressing his effort for an interim agreement that would reopen the Suez Canal and lead toward broader peace talks. While the Suez negotiations have got nowhere, both Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad and Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban have told Rogers, during meetings at his suite in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, that their governments want the talks to continue.

Commitment to Balance. In this situation, Moscow's announcement of additional arms for Egypt infuriated the U.S. "This is a helluva time for them to do this," said one State Department official. Rogers sternly "deplored" the Soviet move "at this stage of sensitive negotiations" and warned: "We will have to consider, in view of this, and in line with President Nixon's commitment to maintain the balance of power in the area, the consequences, and make sure that the balance of power does not shift." In the Senate, meanwhile, 78 of 100 members signed a petition urging the Administration to resume delivery of Phantom jets to Israel.