Documents / FOIA release

Weekly Summary

Central Intelligence Agency · 1970-05-08 · 78 pages · text from the file's own layer

The CIA's Directorate of Intelligence issued this Weekly Summary, No. 0369/70, on 8 May 1970. It covers events through noon on 7 May. The Far East section deals with the allied operations into Cambodia, Hanoi's cautious response and the government in exile Sihanouk formed in Peking. Other items cover Soviet military aid, the Sino-Soviet talks, Jordan, Dahomey, Guatemala and Brazil, and a special report looks at Cuban support for subversion in Latin America. Many pages are withheld, and the summary contains no UFO material.

  • p. 27 …Egyptian President l\lasir’s May Day speech included an appeal to the US to force…
Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550
"SEfH%EJl_
ROMANIA COURTS THE ARABS
Romania has made a strong bid
in recent months to improve its re-
lations with the Arab world, par-
ticularly with Egypt.
The Romanian Government has
never fully recovered its political
standing in the Arab world since it
refused to join the USSR and the
other Warsaw Pact countries in
breaking relations with Israel af-
ter the June 1967 war. Romanian-
Arab relations fell to a new low
last August when Bucharest raised
its diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv
to embassy level. Widely consid-
ered a coup for Israel, the move
was denounced by Arabs and Commu-
nists alike. Iraq recalled its
charge and Egypt recalled its am-
bassador, while the Sudan and Syria
broke relations entirely.
The Romanians still insist on
implementation of the 1967 UN reso-
lution as a solution to the Arab-
Israeli conflict, but since early
this year they have been at pains
to demonstrate limited support for
the Arab cause in other ways. Bucha-
rest staged an international day of
solidarity with the Arab people on
25 January. In February the au-
thoritative party daily Scinteia
condemned the Israeli bombing of
the Egyptian civilian factory at
Abu Zabal. Visits to Cairo by a
Romanian trade union delegation in
February and by Foreign Trade Min-
ister Burtica in March were empha-
sized in the Romanian press as evi-
dence of Bucharest‘s friendly in-
tentions. Finally, in a speech to
the Romanian parliament later that
month, Foreign Minister Manescu ap-
pealed for a "full normalization" of
relations with all Arab countries,
and significantly, did not mention
Israel.
Nevertheless, the problem that
probably touches the most sensitive
Arab nerve has been the emigration
of Romanian Jews to Israel. This
emigration had totaled several thou-
sand yearly, but was abruptly cut
off following the June 1967 war.
In October 1968 it was reportedly
allowed to resume in trickling num-
bers. Reports conflict on whether
such emigration is still under way,
but in view of Romania's other moves
toward reconciliation with the Arabs,
it is doubtful.
The Romanians probably feel
that their policy of neutrality and
friendship with all has become some-
what lopsided in the Middle East in
favor of Israel. Moreover, while
they are apprehensive about the con-
sequences of deeper Soviet involve-
ment in the Arab-Israeli conflict,
they do not want to be isolated as
anti-Arab. By extending a friendly
hand to Cairo now they hope to re-
establish their credentials in the
Arab world without seriously endan-
gering their good relations with
Israel. \
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Page 20 WEEKLY SUMMARY 8 May 70
Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 78 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.