(NO PUB DATE) EGYPTIAN-SAUDI TENSIONS

Created: 1/1/1967

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

ANNEX

LIBRARY

_ _ . Mandatory Review

Egyptian-Saudi

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Nasir and Faysal are againollision course. This could bring within the year major hostilitiesEgypt and the Saudi monarchy, to which the US is closely linked.

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seemingly inevitable movement towardfive yeara ago in Yemen, when Egyptianoperatives helped some Yemeni army officers

^pubi^c. Unhappily for Nasir, the' smeni monarcny was not destroyed. Instead, the ruler took to the hills with.his family and tribal supporters, where with Saudi arms, money, and food, heuerrilla campaign that has sputtered along witheffect ever since.

the years, Nasir has found it an expensive proposition to keep the Yemen republic alive. At onetime he0 troops there, sustained bySoviet assistance. Only about half as many are there now, but thishift in Egyptiantoward greater use of Soviet-supplied airpower and terror tactics, andecision by Nasir to cut.his losses.

Egyptians have been stei

tacks recently, '

. anuary, they- combed with high explosives the Saudi border town of Najran used by the Yemeni royalistsupply base. The Nasirites have also begun terrorist bomb attacks within Saudi Arabia Itself.

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Saudis are not taking this lying down. Their illitary establishment Is being shored up with US lawkbattery has already been sent to the southern borderwell as British surface-to-air lissiles.

ie recent Egyptian provocations seem only to have strengthenedesolve that if Nasir ever does quit Yemen, he will not do so ln triumph. Faysal is on the point of "unleashing" guerrilla warfare.

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spadework begun by Ambassador Bunker2 helped prepare the ground for the Agreement of Jidda Under this accord, the Yemeni factions wouldovernment, the Egyptians would pull out, and the Saudis would pack away the Yemeni royal family in mothballs. The compromise soon broke down,with each side blaming the other. But the main reason was that Nasir saw his Yemeni assets slipping away from him Just when he hadew opening developing for him as the British announced theirto leave Aden. They will probably be out of Adenear, leaving chaos behind them. Nasir has alreadyliberation army to fill the vi

When Bunker began his good offices, thested parties could view the IS as an objective, if not completely neutral, mediator. Now they do not. As recently as last week, Nasir publicly accused us of about every sin in the book. At this juncture he views the US as the moving spirit behind his current list of self-appointedKing Husayn, and the Shah of Iran.

makes the Egyptian-Saudi collision course especially worrisome ls that it comesime when the British, who have in effect policed the areaentury, are pulling out. No one has volunteered to take their place.

Original document.

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