Stalin, Soviets and İsraeli Question - then and now -8 - Correspondence with -and in reference to Arab Countries
Stalin, Soviets and İsraeli Question - then and now .
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RECORDING A CONVERSATION OF THE DEPUTY MINISTER FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR F.T. GUSEVA WITH EGYPT'S AMBASSADOR IN THE USSR BINDARI-PASHA
December 13, 1947
Secret
Today, December 13, the envoy of Egypt, Bindari Pasha, came to me on a
protocol visit.
[...] 1 Bindari then turned to the question of Egypt's response to the
United Nations decision on Palestine. He pointed out that. I would like to
state my point of view not in an official manner and not as a representative of
my country, but simply as a friend of the Soviet Union. Bindari said he did not
understand why the Soviet Union voted to partition Palestine. In his opinion,
one should vote only for the withdrawal of British troops from Palestine and
the abolition of the mandate. The question of the future structure of Palestine
should be left to the population itself. Bindari noted that, from his point of
view, the position of the Soviet Union on the Palestinian issue contributed, on
the one hand, to the growth of anti-Soviet sentiments in Egypt and, on the
other hand, was a pretext for putting pressure on progressive forces in Arab
countries. Bindari stressed that it would be better if the Soviet Union
remained neutral on this issue and did not support the United States.
In response to these considerations, I said that the position of the
Soviet Union in relation to Egypt and other countries was always clear and
precise, namely, that we adhere to the principle of equality and respect for
the sovereignty of all states, both small and large.
I further pointed out that the position of the Soviet Union on Palestine is also clear and definite. The Soviet Union has no vested interests in Palestine.
In conclusion, Bindari again began to say that the position of the
Soviet Union on the Palestinian issue caused an unfriendly reaction in the Arab
countries and disrupted the evolution that had taken place in the Arab
countries in their relations with the Soviet Union in recent years.
At the end of the conversation, Bindari handed me a memo regarding the
shipment of the remaining amount of cholera vaccine to Egypt.
I was present at the conversation with Comrade S. Kudryavtsev.
F. Gusev
WUA RF. F. 087. Op. 10.P.13.D. 2.L. 21-23.
FROM THE RECORD OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE USSR AMBASSADOR IN LEBANON AND IN SYRIA D.S. MALT WITH PRIME MINISTER AND INTERIM MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF LEBANON R. SOLKH
December 23, 1947
Secret
Due to the delay in processing the transfer of the site to us, I met
with Riad Solh to remind him of the need to expedite the completion of the
formalities. He, referring to his long absence from Lebanon, summoned Fuad
Ammun1 and asked me to settle the issue with him, since, in his words, the
issue has been resolved in principle and the formalities should not cause
difficulties.
When it came to current political issues in the Middle East, in
particular, the meetings of the political committee of the Arab League2 in
Cairo, Solh said that the Arab countries had finally agreed under no
circumstances to agree to the partition of Palestine and the creation of a
Jewish state in it, to resist by all means. against partition and wage a
struggle by all means, no matter how long it lasts. At the same time, he
repeated the words already said to me once by the President of Syria, Shukri
al-Quatli, that if necessary, the Arabs will fight for the preservation of
Palestine for 200 years, as it was during the crusades.
When I asked whether all the consequences of such a position of the Arab
countries had been discussed in sufficient detail at the political committee,
he answered in the affirmative and stated that the Arab countries could not
equal the strength of other powers, but they would never agree to the partition
of Palestine and the formation of a Jewish state. because the partition means
the de facto annexation of the Arab part of Palestine to Transjordan.
Consequently, this will strengthen the position of King Abdullah and those
behind him.
Thus, Riad Solh indirectly confirmed that the initiator and main
inspirer of the struggle of the Arab countries against the partition of
Palestine is Syria, which is afraid that after the accession of the Arab part
of Palestine to Transjordan, the question of the creation of Greater Syria will
arise, against which it will then be much more difficult to resist than
currently.
Answering my separate questions about the Cairo meeting of the political
committee of the Arab League, Riad Solh said that at present the Arab countries
do not envisage organizing the struggle outside Palestine. The Arab armies have
no intention of entering Palestine yet. Moreover, a general general command for
the leadership of the struggle for Palestine has not yet been determined, and
the Jerusalem mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini has not been recognized as the main
leader of this struggle.
His headquarters will not be located in the Lebanese city of Saida,
located near the Palestinian border, as the Arab newspapers wrote about it. In
addition, economic sanctions against the powers and states that voted for the
partition of Palestine will not be applied for now.
At present, the basis of the struggle for Palestine is being built on
the basis of the guerrilla struggle in Palestine itself. At the same time, Riad
Solh made it clear that even this guerrilla movement within Palestine itself
would not have a centralized command. Consequently, all those timid hints of
the Arab press that at the Cairo meetings of the political committee of the
Arab League no agreement was reached between the Arab countries on any of the
main issues of the practical organization of the struggle to preserve the
so-called Arab character of Palestine, are fully confirmed. In other words, the
contradictions existing between the Arab countries were not overcome on any of
the main issues, and the Iraqi and Trans-Jordanian Hashemites remained in their
positions of struggle against the Jerusalem mufti, on the one hand, and against
Syria and Saudi Arabia, on the other. At the same time, Syria and Saudi Arabia,
supporting the Jerusalem mufti, did not make concessions to the Hashemites, and
Egypt, apparently, remained in its positions to adhere to a certain degree of
neutrality in these matters.
However, in the conversation, Riad Solkh made it very dull to understand
that the deployment of an active struggle in Palestine was scheduled for some
other time and, apparently, more distant. Consequently, the possibility is not
excluded that, with the consent of the British, the struggle in Palestine will
unfold at a time when the British begin to evacuate Palestine, and the United
Nations will not have time to create an organ and military forces capable of
ruling Palestine and maintaining order and security there.
When I asked whether the newspaper reports about the British intention
to settle a number of issues with the Arab countries were true, Solkh replied
that to a certain extent these newspaper reports were true, since the Iraqi
leaders had informed him that they had begun negotiations with the British on
revising the British government. -The Iraqi Treaty of 1930 and, according to
them, the negotiations are developing successfully. Therefore, the possibility
is not excluded that the existing British military bases in Iraq will soon be
canceled. In addition, the Prime Minister of Transjordan, Samir Rifai Pasha,
also informed him of the British consent to begin negotiations on revising the
Anglo-Transjordan treaty of 1946, and Samir Rifai Pasha would soon leave for
London. When I asked him whether these negotiations were being conducted in
isolation from each other or on a common basis, he replied that, according to
the Iraqis and Trans-Jordanians, the negotiations were being conducted on a
common basis, but he allegedly did not know what the content of this common
basis was. [...]
Messenger D Malt
WUA RF. F. 0106. Op. 7.P. 7.D. 6.L. 82-85, 87.
PRESENTATION BY THE HEAD OF THE MIDDLE EAST DEPARTMENT OF THE USSR MFA I.I. BAKULIN AND DEPUTY HEAD OF THE MIDDLE EAST DEPARTMENT OF THE USSR MFA MA MAKSIMOVA TO DEPUTY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR V.A. ZORIN
January 5, 1948
Secret
1. Bindari Pasha's conversation with the Yugoslav ambassador Popovich indicates that Bindari decided to find out through a third party whether the Soviet Government is firmly in its positions on the Palestinian issue and whether it is possible for the Arab countries to bargain out concessions from the USSR on this issue by threatening to crush everything progressive and, in particular, communist organizations in Arab countries.
It seems to us that there is hardly any need to react to this kind of sounding by Bindari.
2. As for our replies to the official inquiries of the Egyptian envoy, they (answers) were given on all questions that the envoy put before the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A list of questions for which no answers have been given to the inquiries of the Egyptian mission is attached.
3. Bindari Pasha and earlier in his conversations (for example, in a conversation with Comrade Ya.A. Malik on May 11, 1947) 2 tried to show himself as a true friend of the USSR and insisted on receiving more specific statements from the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs on various issues related to Egypt and Arab countries.
For example, Bindari, in the period before Egypt submitted the issue of Anglo-Egyptian disagreements to the UN, tried more than once to find out in detail the position of the USSR in a possible analysis of the conflict in the UN.
This probe by Bindari Pasha was also reacted with restraint, proceeding from the position that we did not want to be used by the Egyptian elite during bargaining with the British. The Egyptian envoy was told that since Egypt did not refer its question to the Security Council, it is difficult to say anything about our future position on this issue.
I. Bakulin M Maksimov
WUA RF. F. 021. Op. 26.P.44.D.16.Sheet 1.
FROM THE RECORD OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE USSR AMBASSADOR IN LEBANON AND IN SYRIA D.S. MALT WITH PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SYRIA J. MARDAM BEEM
5 and 7 January 1948
Secret
I met with Mardam and told him that the USSR mission in Syria insisted on investigating the November 30, 1947 attack on the premises of the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR and the destruction of the exhibition dedicated to the Soviet Union and other property in the premises belonging to the All-Union Society for Cultural Communication with abroad. At the same time, the mission reserves the right to return to the issue of compensation for incurred losses.
Mardam took from me our note of December 7, 1947, which was returned by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to our mission during his absence, got acquainted with its content and began to explain the reasons for its return in a very confused way. At the same time, he admitted that there were indeed irresponsible elements among the demonstrators who attacked not only the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, but also the American and French diplomatic missions, which is incompatible with generally accepted rules, and therefore the Syrian government had to immediately adopt the appropriate measures.
At this time, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Syria Mohsen Barazi entered Mardam's office, who replaced him as Minister of Foreign Affairs when sending our note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He immediately began by saying that the note from the Soviet mission is not acceptable because it concerns exclusively internal Syrian issues. [...]
On Wednesday, January 7, Mardam Bey, without any special preambles, immediately stated that, despite the fact that the Syrian government is very dissatisfied with the position of the Soviet Union on the Palestinian issue, nevertheless, it believes that there is no reason for the deterioration of relations between the two countries from for such, in fact, a minor incident, therefore, it intends to maintain in the future friendly relations with the Soviet Union, which existed before.
After discussing in detail the issue of the incidents that occurred in Damascus on November 30, the Syrian government decided to conduct a detailed investigation of all incidents that occurred on that day, including the issue of the attack on the premises of the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the Soviet Union. The Syrian government has already instructed prosecutors to start investigations, and today the first demonstrations against such a government decision have already taken place in Damascus.
As for the losses incurred by VOKS in the attack on the premises of the society, the Syrian government is ready to resolve this issue in a friendly way and he personally, in particular, asks me to provide him with the value of all the property that was in the premises of the society. At the same time, he hopes that the Soviet government also wishes to resolve the incident in a friendly way, so he asks that the incident be considered settled. I replied to him that I would bring his message to the attention of the Soviet government.
Note: There is no reason for Mardam to believe that the "investigation" will yield any results, since his own people were campaigning for the attack on the premises of the society. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that he recognized the validity of our protest, officially announced the beginning of the investigation, and agreed to `` amicably, '' by way of settling the issue of compensation for the material damage caused, we should, under the pretext of clarifying the losses, contact the management staff of the company and try gradually restore it to work.
Turning to the issues of current politics, Mardam said that at the Cairo meetings of the heads of the Arab governments and the meetings of the political committee, it was decided to use all the means, methods and possibilities of the Arab countries to prevent the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Answering my questions, he said that on the issue of the general political leadership of the struggle for Palestine, no agreement had yet been reached and that the information that had appeared on the formation of an interim Palestinian Arab government was not yet known to him in detail.
There is an agreement between the Arab countries regarding the general military command of the troops assigned by the Arab countries for their deployment on the Palestinian borders, and a special military council will command them. However, he refused to name the names of the members of this council.
As for the volunteers, he only noticed that there was a shortage of weapons.
Note: Judging by the tone of Mardam Bey's conversation on the Palestinian issue, it was felt that the Arabs were hiding something. Therefore, it is likely that the current Arab leaders have come to an agreement with the British and the time of active operations in Palestine is apparently timed to coincide with the period that will begin with the withdrawal of British troops from Palestine before the arrival of UN forces there.
When I asked about the possibility of the arrival of King Abdullah in Lebanon, Mardam replied that there was such an intention, but Abdallah’s trip to Lebanon would not take place, and a meeting between the presidents of Syria and Lebanon would soon take place. But when I asked him what issues would be discussed at this meeting, he replied that the main issue is Palestinian.
Note: In my opinion, it will not be the Palestinian issue in the literal sense of the word that will be discussed, but, apparently, the issue of the concessions that the Arab countries of Great Britain can make in exchange for the British offered support to the Arab countries in the Palestinian issue.
Messenger D MALOD
WUA RF. F. 0128. Op. 11.P. 8.D. 5.L. 36-37, 39-42.
RECORDING OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR A.Ya. Vyshinsky with the EGYPT'S MISSION TO THE USSR BINDARI-PASHA
February 25, 1948
Translated From Russian; Svitlana M
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