Arab Differences
The Council of the Arab League, which has been meeting at Alexandria this week for discussions, is not at the moment in a happy state. Several knotty problems require solution ; what is to be done about the refugees, about Jerusalem, about the administration of Arab-occupied Palestine ? As if there were not ground enough for disagreement here, Iraq and Syria have recently made no secret of their intention to conclude some form of union, a proposal which is gall and wormwood to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and only slightly less objectionable to Lebanon. Nevertheless it is going to require more than Egyptian disapproval to cause the plan to be abandoned; opinion in Iraq is almost solidly in favour of it, and though opposition is more vocal in Syria, the majority of the present Cabinet is prepared to see it through. The form which the ,union would take is still obscure, but it is unlikely that it would involve a complete merger of the two States' identities, if only because this would presumably mean the loss of a vote in the Assembly of the United Nations. More probable is a unification of the two armies and the abolition of customs, which would later lead on to some form of political federa- tion. On the other subjects which are to come up for discussion, all legacies of the Palestine fighting, it is essential that the Arabs should co-ordinate their plans, since they are due for a hearing at Lake Success this autumn. A final decision on the refugees must await the recommendations of the U.N. Committee of Investigation, which is due to produce an interim report by the end of the month, but the fate of Arab Palestine should be settled without delay. However much Egypt may dislike the idea, it is difficult to see how this territory can avoid being incorporated in Jordan. In practice this incorporation is already a fact and, since the Arab League lacks the power to enforce its decisions on its member States, all that is required to turn fact into legality is a simple declaration by Jordan.
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