OPINION

August 22, 1957

CRISIS WITH SYRIA: Washington, 21 – The world’s attention is focused on Syria, and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower has spent most of the day focusing on developments in that country. At the same time, the US Sixth Fleet, currently involved in exercises in the central Mediterranean, is at the ready to move wherever the situation requires, and a large Russian battleship, accompanied by destroyers, was heading toward the Mediterranean from the Baltic Sea. According to a telegram from Paris, Soviet warships off Leningrad are shortly to visit Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and possibly Egypt and Syria. In Syria, preparations to make use of Russian aid are continuing and opponents of the current regime are leaving for Lebanon. On the diplomatic front, negotiations between Western forces to deal with unexpected developments in the Middle East have not progressed very far. In Washington, President Eisenhower told the press that charges of «an American conspiracy against Syria» were obviously a smokescreen for people with leftist sympathies who were trying to seize power. He added that this was an example of the old Soviet method of providing economic and military assistance and infiltration by Moscow’s agents.

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