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Moderate Voice. When the Anglo-French attack on Suez came, Saud, in the opinion of U.S. observers, did what he had to do—and no more. He closed down the pipeline to Bahrein (a British protectorate), banned sale of Saudi oil to British or French buyers, broke relations with Britain and France, allowed Nasser to use Saudi airfields to fly his Russian jets and bombers to safety, and offered Saudi troops (Nasser declined them as unneeded). In return, he had one urgent favor to ask of Nasser: that he ask the Syrians not to blow up Tapline, the pipeline that carries a third of Aramco's production through Arabia and Syria to the Mediterranean. Reportedly, Nasser obliged —by making a telephone call to Syria's Colonel Abdel Hamid Serraj who agreed. Iraq's Nuri es Said, who waited too long before demonstrating his support of Nasser, saw his pipelines blown up by the Syrian army.
In the Suez aftermath, all Middle East states are suffering from loss of oil revenues. Iraq's revenues are down 75%, Kuwait's by 40%, Saudi Arabia's by about one-third. The cut hurts the Saudis seriously, since they have spent their revenues up to the point of overdraft. The U.S. fully expects King Saud to ask for aid, and expects to give it.
Man Left Out. In Cairo last week. Nasser acted like a man frantically afraid he was being left out. With Saud about to arrive, he hastily called his ally, Premier Sabri el Assali of Syria. Young King Hussein flew over from Jordan. Nasser's purpose: to talk them into replacing the subsidy Britain has for so long paid Jordan to support its Arab legion and base troops there. Nasser obviously feared that, with U.S. help under the Eisenhower doctrine. Saud might do it alone, forming a U.S.-backed partnership with Jordan that had no place for Nasser. It took Nasser hours of talk, including a two-hour session with Saud alone, before agreement came. Reportedly, Saud and Nasser will each put up a yearly $15 million. Syria $7.5 million. The minute his signature was affixed to the document, the silent King Saud hustled out to the airport and took off for Naples.
There he dazzled Neapolitans as his 45-car motorcade swept through the streets to the Excelsior Hotel, where soon two floors were redolent with clouds of the King's special incense and grey-and-purple-robed guards swirled through the lobby. The retinue includes a royal barber, two royal coffeemakers and a special guard with the title "Keeper of His Majesty's Jewels." Only woman in Saud's retinue is the Lebanese nurse of five-year-old Prince Mashur, whose arms are partially paralyzed from some disease or accident in infancy. The King brought the boy along in the hope that U.S. doctors can cure or help him. At week's end, Saud boarded the U.S.S. Constitution for the U.S.
Just what the U.S. and Saud could do for each other in the Middle East was not yet clear to either of them. What was clear was that just now neither could usefully declare himself out loud: Saud, for example, could not be expected to denounce Nasser.