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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 MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SYRIA J. MARDAM BEEM

5 and 7 January 1948

Secret

I met with Mardam and told him that the USSR mission in Syria insisted on investigating the November 30, 1947 attack on the premises of the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR and the destruction of the exhibition dedicated to the Soviet Union and other property in the premises belonging to the All-Union Society for Cultural Communication with abroad. At the same time, the mission reserves the right to return to the issue of compensation for incurred losses.

Mardam took from me our note of December 7, 1947, which was returned by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to our mission during his absence, got acquainted with its content and began to explain the reasons for its return in a very confused way. At the same time, he admitted that there were indeed irresponsible elements among the demonstrators who attacked not only the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, but also the American and French diplomatic missions, which is incompatible with generally accepted rules, and therefore the Syrian government had to immediately adopt the appropriate measures.

At this time, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Syria Mohsen Barazi entered Mardam's office, who replaced him as Minister of Foreign Affairs when sending our note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He immediately began by saying that the note from the Soviet mission is not acceptable because it concerns exclusively internal Syrian issues. [...]

On Wednesday, January 7, Mardam Bey, without any special preambles, immediately stated that, despite the fact that the Syrian government is very dissatisfied with the position of the Soviet Union on the Palestinian issue, nevertheless, it believes that there is no reason for the deterioration of relations between the two countries from for such, in fact, a minor incident, therefore, it intends to maintain in the future friendly relations with the Soviet Union, which existed before.

After discussing in detail the issue of the incidents that occurred in Damascus on November 30, the Syrian government decided to conduct a detailed investigation of all incidents that occurred on that day, including the issue of the attack on the premises of the Syrian Society for Cultural Relations with the Soviet Union. The Syrian government has already instructed prosecutors to start investigations, and today the first demonstrations against such a government decision have already taken place in Damascus.

As for the losses incurred by VOKS in the attack on the premises of the society, the Syrian government is ready to resolve this issue in a friendly way and he personally, in particular, asks me to provide him with the value of all the property that was in the premises of the society. At the same time, he hopes that the Soviet government also wishes to resolve the incident in a friendly way, so he asks that the incident be considered settled. I replied to him that I would bring his message to the attention of the Soviet government.

Note: There is no reason for Mardam to believe that the "investigation" will yield any results, since his own people were campaigning for the attack on the premises of the society. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that he recognized the validity of our protest, officially announced the beginning of the investigation, and agreed to `` amicably, '' by way of settling the issue of compensation for the material damage caused, we should, under the pretext of clarifying the losses, contact the management staff of the company and try gradually restore it to work.

Turning to the issues of current politics, Mardam said that at the Cairo meetings of the heads of the Arab governments and the meetings of the political committee, it was decided to use all the means, methods and possibilities of the Arab countries to prevent the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Answering my questions, he said that on the issue of the general political leadership of the struggle for Palestine, no agreement had yet been reached and that the information that had appeared on the formation of an interim Palestinian Arab government was not yet known to him in detail.

There is an agreement between the Arab countries regarding the general military command of the troops assigned by the Arab countries for their deployment on the Palestinian borders, and a special military council will command them. However, he refused to name the names of the members of this council.

As for the volunteers, he only noticed that there was a shortage of weapons.

Note: Judging by the tone of Mardam Bey's conversation on the Palestinian issue, it was felt that the Arabs were hiding something. Therefore, it is likely that the current Arab leaders have come to an agreement with the British and the time of active operations in Palestine is apparently timed to coincide with the period that will begin with the withdrawal of British troops from Palestine before the arrival of UN forces there.

When I asked about the possibility of the arrival of King Abdullah in Lebanon, Mardam replied that there was such an intention, but Abdallah’s trip to Lebanon would not take place, and a meeting between the presidents of Syria and Lebanon would soon take place. But when I asked him what issues would be discussed at this meeting, he replied that the main issue is Palestinian.

Note: In my opinion, it will not be the Palestinian issue in the literal sense of the word that will be discussed, but, apparently, the issue of the concessions that the Arab countries of Great Britain can make in exchange for the British offered support to the Arab countries in the Palestinian issue.

Messenger D MALOD

WUA RF. F. 0128. Op. 11.P. 8.D. 5.L. 36-37, 39-42.