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FROM THE RECORD OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE USSR AMBASSADOR IN LEBANON AND IN SYRIA D.S. MALT WITH PRIME MINISTER AND INTERIM MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF LEBANON R. SOLKH

December 23, 1947

Secret

Due to the delay in processing the transfer of the site to us, I met with Riad Solh to remind him of the need to expedite the completion of the formalities. He, referring to his long absence from Lebanon, summoned Fuad Ammun1 and asked me to settle the issue with him, since, in his words, the issue has been resolved in principle and the formalities should not cause difficulties.

When it came to current political issues in the Middle East, in particular, the meetings of the political committee of the Arab League2 in Cairo, Solh said that the Arab countries had finally agreed under no circumstances to agree to the partition of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish state in it, to resist by all means. against partition and wage a struggle by all means, no matter how long it lasts. At the same time, he repeated the words already said to me once by the President of Syria, Shukri al-Quatli, that if necessary, the Arabs will fight for the preservation of Palestine for 200 years, as it was during the crusades.

When I asked whether all the consequences of such a position of the Arab countries had been discussed in sufficient detail at the political committee, he answered in the affirmative and stated that the Arab countries could not equal the strength of other powers, but they would never agree to the partition of Palestine and the formation of a Jewish state. because the partition means the de facto annexation of the Arab part of Palestine to Transjordan. Consequently, this will strengthen the position of King Abdullah and those behind him.

Thus, Riad Solh indirectly confirmed that the initiator and main inspirer of the struggle of the Arab countries against the partition of Palestine is Syria, which is afraid that after the accession of the Arab part of Palestine to Transjordan, the question of the creation of Greater Syria will arise, against which it will then be much more difficult to resist than currently.

Answering my separate questions about the Cairo meeting of the political committee of the Arab League, Riad Solh said that at present the Arab countries do not envisage organizing the struggle outside Palestine. The Arab armies have no intention of entering Palestine yet. Moreover, a general general command for the leadership of the struggle for Palestine has not yet been determined, and the Jerusalem mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini has not been recognized as the main leader of this struggle.

His headquarters will not be located in the Lebanese city of Saida, located near the Palestinian border, as the Arab newspapers wrote about it. In addition, economic sanctions against the powers and states that voted for the partition of Palestine will not be applied for now.

At present, the basis of the struggle for Palestine is being built on the basis of the guerrilla struggle in Palestine itself. At the same time, Riad Solh made it clear that even this guerrilla movement within Palestine itself would not have a centralized command. Consequently, all those timid hints of the Arab press that at the Cairo meetings of the political committee of the Arab League no agreement was reached between the Arab countries on any of the main issues of the practical organization of the struggle to preserve the so-called Arab character of Palestine, are fully confirmed. In other words, the contradictions existing between the Arab countries were not overcome on any of the main issues, and the Iraqi and Trans-Jordanian Hashemites remained in their positions of struggle against the Jerusalem mufti, on the one hand, and against Syria and Saudi Arabia, on the other. At the same time, Syria and Saudi Arabia, supporting the Jerusalem mufti, did not make concessions to the Hashemites, and Egypt, apparently, remained in its positions to adhere to a certain degree of neutrality in these matters.

However, in the conversation, Riad Solkh made it very dull to understand that the deployment of an active struggle in Palestine was scheduled for some other time and, apparently, more distant. Consequently, the possibility is not excluded that, with the consent of the British, the struggle in Palestine will unfold at a time when the British begin to evacuate Palestine, and the United Nations will not have time to create an organ and military forces capable of ruling Palestine and maintaining order and security there.

When I asked whether the newspaper reports about the British intention to settle a number of issues with the Arab countries were true, Solkh replied that to a certain extent these newspaper reports were true, since the Iraqi leaders had informed him that they had begun negotiations with the British on revising the British government. -The Iraqi Treaty of 1930 and, according to them, the negotiations are developing successfully. Therefore, the possibility is not excluded that the existing British military bases in Iraq will soon be canceled. In addition, the Prime Minister of Transjordan, Samir Rifai Pasha, also informed him of the British consent to begin negotiations on revising the Anglo-Transjordan treaty of 1946, and Samir Rifai Pasha would soon leave for London. When I asked him whether these negotiations were being conducted in isolation from each other or on a common basis, he replied that, according to the Iraqis and Trans-Jordanians, the negotiations were being conducted on a common basis, but he allegedly did not know what the content of this common basis was. [...]

Messenger D Malt

WUA RF. F. 0106. Op. 7.P. 7.D. 6.L. 82-85, 87.