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In the seething tangle of Middle Eastern intrigue, that is precisely what Nasser does consider it—and he is determined to frustrate Feisal's call to Mecca just as he torpedoed the fourth Arab summit meeting, which was to have been held this month, rather than sit at the same table with Feisal's "forces of reaction." Increasingly, the Arab states are being called to line up on one side or the other, Nasser's or Feisal's. Nasser is still the name to conjure with in the streets of the Middle East, but Feisal can offer hard cash to his allies. In addition to helping the Yemeni royalists, he is supporting Jordan's King Hussein with millions of dollars for everything from road building to weapons. He is also strengthening Saudi Arabia's own defenses with purchases of some $1.5 billion in military hardware in case a fight with Nasser should ever be necessary.
The Line-Up. In such a showdown, Nasser could count on Algeria, Syria, Iraq and Sallal's part of Yemen—all more or less socialist, Soviet-armed regimes. Feisal would have on his side Western-equipped Jordan, Bahrain, the tiny sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf, and perhaps Morocco, Tunisia and Kuwait. Non-Arab Iran, whose Shah despises Nasser, would probably aid Feisal enthusiastically. Anxious to remain neutral are Lebanon, Libya and the Sudan. But it may never come to a showdown. The meeting around a fire is as old as
Arab history: much coffee and lengthy but inconclusive talk. Should Feisal ever get his Islamic summit, it might prove just the cooling-off conclave the Middle East requires.