THE MIDDLE EAST: Troubles & Wrong Moves

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Soldiers' Pilgrimage. At Nasser's invitation, the two leaders of last month's Syrian army coup, Major General Afif Bizri and Lieut. Colonel Abdel Hamid Serraj, turned up in Cairo. Bizri called the trip a "pilgrimage" to reaffirm military ties between Egypt and Syria, explaining: "It is the first duty of a soldier to contact his commander." Cairo newspapers said that the Syrian officers had assured Nasser that Syria had no intention of using Soviet arms aggressively; and Serraj told the newspaper Al Akhbar: "I am not a Communist, and there is not one single Communist officer in the whole Syrian army." Then the two officers flew back to Damascus to see whether they can get $500 million from the Soviet delegation that is coming to negotiate with them for the economic aid promised by Moscow.

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