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"I have been a conspirator for so long that I mistrust all around me," Nasser once said. In the Arab world, where trust comes hard anyway, Nasser's street mobs and secret agents have so riled the Arab leaders that nearly all mistrust him. Though they still are wary of his power over the bazaars and the street mobs, neither Jordan's King Hussein, nor Saudi Arabia's King Saud nor Iraq's Premier Karim Kassem has proved willing to accept his leadership. The Sudan, Libya and Lebanon remain cautiously aloof, despite Nasser's best efforts. Though Nasser supported the Algerian rebels with arms and sanctuary, the current peace negotiations are the work of Tunisia's moderate President Bourguiba, with whom Nasser has long been at odds. Publicly, he is forced to approve Algerian peace talks. But if they succeed, Nasser might well find himself looking in from the outside on an Arab, French-oriented "Maghreb" made up of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. In the world of Islam, Iran has extended Israel de facto recognition. President Ayub Khan of Pakistan has no use for Nasser's neutralism.
The Gateway. Frustrated in the Arab and Moslem worlds, Nasser has turned his propaganda and subversion techniques on Africa, which he considers rightly his to lead, since, he says, Egypt "guards the northern gateway." But he has attracted to his doubtful banner chiefly the fanatics, crackpots and dissidents. In a ramshackle, flaking mansion in the Cairo suburb of Zamalek, a dozen African "political exiles" compile tracts denouncing the imperialists and pro-Western nationalists, broadcast regularly on "The Voice of Free Africa." The U.A.R. has set up "cultural centers" in Somalia, the Sudan and Ghana, and it has become fashionable for prosperous Egyptians to call themselves "Africans."
But, in fact, Nasser has very little to show for his African exploits. For one thing, in Africa he lacks what he had in the Middle East: the advantage of a common language. The 2,000 African students in Cairo are disillusioned. "We have been brought to Cairo more for politics than anything else. There is no free discussion, no questions are allowed. It is just like being treated as a schoolboy all over again," complained one. While Nasser was busy plotting in the Arab world, its old enemy Israel got off to a better start in African trade and aid, even with African Moslem nations. At one time, Israel had more diplomatic representation in Africa than all the Arab countries put together, still has trade missions at work all over. Israel trained Ghana's merchant fleet, helped develop Nigeria's water resources, Guinea's diamond mines, the construction industry in Liberia. Nasser's total aid to all of Africa: $7,000,000 to Somalia.