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Matter of Sabotage? For the first time in 500 years, the three key Arab states of Egypt, Iraq and Syria have a similar political posture and are on close and friendly terms. The new crowd in primitive Yemen, where 28,000 Egyptian troops are propping up still another pro-Nasser rebellion, is eager to join any alliance that can be hammered out. The monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan—close friends of the West but hated enemies of the Arab nationalists—face the threat of uprisings at the hands of powerful local friends of the man in Cairo. When King Saud's private Comet plane, equipped with a royal throne, crashed last week against an Italian mountain, killing all 18 aboard, the Saudi Arabs automatically assumed that it had been sabotaged by Nasser agents.
Maybe it was and maybe it was not. In the swirling Middle East struggle, Cairo would flex its muscles where it could. The successful coups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq were no surprise to Gamal Abdel Nasser. He knew they were coming, if not precisely when and how. He knew the conspirators involved in each, though he claims to have pulled no strings. Cairo is thickly populated by exiles from every corner of the Arab world, ranging from Syria's tough Abdul Hamid Serraj, who originally failed Nasser in Damascus, to obscure Tunisians, Yemenis, Saudis, Jordanians and refugees from the British-backed sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf. Many of them live well on Egyptian subsidies. Former Saudi Petroleum Minister
Abdullah Tariki is in and out of Cairo frequently, helping organize arms shipments to Saudi Arabian dissidents by air and across the long, empty border with Kuwait. Nasser has won over Saudi Ara bia's Ambassador to West Germany, who resigned a fortnight ago in protest at his country's failure to institute reforms. At least six other Saudi ambassadors are sympathetic to Nasser's cause.
Accented Voice. All the Arab world is influenced by Nasser's genius as a propagandist. Rising to share Cairo's skyline with the huge dome of the Mohammed Ali mosque is a forest of transmitting antennas that carry Radio Cairo's message to all the world. Cairo's voice bears many accents. There is the overt Voice of the Arabs, and a whole concatenation of '"Voices" (Voice of the Arab Nation, Free Voice of Iran, Voice of Free Africa, etc.), which bleat incitement to rebellion with no identification of their Egyptian origin. The transmitting complex is elaborate and devilishly clever. Recently, Somali-language transmissions have supported the claims of Somalia to a portion of northeast Kenya, while Swahili broadcasts aimed at Kenya denounce the idea. A U.S. construction firm is building a new transmitter, which will be beamed at Tunisia and aimed at destroying President Habib Bourguiba.