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RECORDING OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE USSR AMBASSADOR IN LEBANON AND SYRIA D.S. MALT WITH A. GEYLANI

May 10, 1948

Secret

As it was agreed upon by chance meeting, Geylani went to the mission and told the following in a conversation:

1. The development of Palestinian events has greatly undermined the authority of the Arab League, the current leaders of the Arab countries, especially in Syria and Lebanon, and the Jerusalem mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who were the main initiators and conductors of the current course of the active armed struggle of Arabs against Jews in Palestine ... In their calls for an armed struggle and in their promises of preserving the Arab character of Palestine, they went so far that, in the end, they succeeded in convincing the broad Arab masses of a successful outcome of this struggle and instilling such strong nationalist sentiments that turned into extreme chauvinism, which in total led to general excitement in the Arab countries. However, the inability of the Arab League, the Jerusalem Mufti and the current Arab leaders to organize the struggle in Palestine, the disorganization in the Arab Liberation Army, 1 the loss of Arab positions and especially the fall of Haifa caused extremely strong discontent among the Arab masses, pushed them away from the current organizers of this movement and led to a sharp and serious criticism even from such Arab figures as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Lebanon Kamil Chamoun and the former Minister of Education of Syria, MP, Emir Adel Arslan.

2. In the process of organizing the armed struggle in Palestine, it turned out that the Syrian army is extremely weak, poorly organized, insufficiently trained and almost unarmed. At the same time, Geylani noted that the British put up very strong resistance to the armament of the Syrian army. He personally, through the Americans, wanted to supply weapons to the Syrian army, but the British and their supporters in the Syrian government stalled the matter.

The weakness of the Syrian army turned out to be so striking that when Syrian President Shukri al-Quatli summoned the commander of the Syrian army, General Abdullah al-Atfe, and asked how many soldiers Syria could allocate for sending to Palestine, the latter named only 1,000 people out of 15,000 of the entire Syrian army. Thus, a very scandalous situation became clear.

In addition, the Syrian government is very concerned about the extremely tense situation within the country, as such mohafezats as Jebel Druz and Latakia, in which the Druze and Alawites were persecuted and oppressed due to the unreasonable policy of repression by the Syrian government against the Druze and Alawites, may rise up against government, in the event of any movement in Syria. In addition, the Syrian Bedouins are of great concern to the Syrian government, because among them there are a large number of staunch supporters of King Abdullah, who did not abandon his project of creating a Greater Syria.

The size of the Lebanese army does not exceed 3,500 people, so Lebanon cannot allocate a single soldier for Palestine at all.

Egypt, in view of its special relations with Great Britain and the very uncertain position of the current government and the ruling classes in general within the country, is afraid to send its troops to Palestine, trying to limit itself to agreeing to financial assistance to the Palestinian cause.

Saudi Arabia refrains from sending its troops to Palestine, because, due to the increased popularity of King Abdullah of Transjordan, it does not exclude the possibility of his attack on Saudi Arabia to reclaim the Hijaz.

Only Iraq goes unconditionally along with Transjordan, but there are many internal dangers in Iraq as well.

3. Recently, the position of the King of Transjordan, Abdullah, has noticeably improved and his popularity has increased. The main reasons for this improvement in the position and growth of Abdallah's popularity are his open criticism of the actions of Arab leaders, therefore it is quite natural that the discontent of the Arab masses with the actions of the leaders turned into a favorable attitude towards Abdallah, the complete failure of the Arab volunteer army in Palestine in the fight against Jewish armed organizations, which caused more than hostile attitude towards the volunteers and transferred all hopes to the Transjordanian army, known as the Arab Legion, which is well trained, well equipped with weapons and accustomed to discipline - all this presented it in the eyes of the broad Arab masses, very warmed up to the occupation of Palestine, the only real a force capable of carrying out this occupation, the all-round strengthening of the position of Abdullah by the British and the support of their agents among the current Arab leaders of Abdullah.

4. The weakness of Syria, the indecision of Egypt, the fears of Saudi Arabia and the impossibility of retreating in front of the propagated public opinion in the Arab countries forced the named countries to agree to Abdallah leading the movement of the military invasion of Palestine. At the same time, Geylani noted that Syria does not believe Abdallah and began to gather all his opponents in Damascus. In particular, the Jerusalem mufti arrived in Damascus, which is the center of the grouping and activation of anti-Hashemite elements. Saudi Arabia is also beginning to intensify the activities of former Iraqi Prime Minister and leader of the uprising in May 1941, Rashid Ali Geylani, who is in Riyadh, and is taking measures to achieve reconciliation between him and the mufti, since, according to Geylani, in Germany during the Second World War During the war, they allegedly differed in views. But the Hashemites also did not remain idle and began to take measures to neutralize the Geylanists. For example, recently in Iraq the former Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of Geylani Shevket Naji was released from prison. According to the plan of the Iraqi regent, he is to win over most of the Geylanists to the side of the current Iraqi government.

5. Taking advantage of the difficult situation created by the Arab Governments and the Arab League, Abdallah, even before his military entry into Palestine, achieved a number of serious concessions from the Arab countries. For example, at first Syria insisted on the formation of a Palestinian Arab government and offered to carry out all actions to seize Palestine on behalf of and under the leadership of this government, but Abdallah resolutely opposed this proposal, and Syria was forced to yield.

This means that Abdallah is pursuing his own goals in Palestine, which do not correspond to the intentions of the rest of the Arab countries. The main of these goals of Abdallah is to seize, first of all, the Arab part of Palestine. But at the same time, Geylani is sure that Abdallah will definitely try to seize the Jewish part of Palestine as well. Moreover, if the first main battle with the Jews is successful, Abdallah will certainly continue to advance to capture the entire Jewish part of Palestine, if the first battle is unsuccessful and Abdallah's attacks are repulsed by the Jews, then he will stop the offensive and blame the rest for his failures. Arab countries.

6. The main goal of Abdallah and the British behind him in preparation for the armed seizure of Palestine, all or only its Arab part, is the subsequent creation of Greater Syria. Moreover, if Abdallah manages to capture the whole of Palestine, which is very unlikely, then his popularity, power and importance will increase to such an extent that none of the current Arab leaders dares to oppose him in his plan, if he limits himself to seizing only the Arab part of Palestine, then he will be able to bring such serious accusations against the current Syrian leaders and they will become so unpopular among the broad masses, and the supporters of Greater Syria will become so strong that it will not be too difficult for Abdallah to implement his plans, especially since the Prime Minister of Syria Jamil Mardam Bey never did not refuse to support the Bol'shessirian movement.

The advantage of Abdallah's current position lies in the fact that now no one can oppose him and against his real intentions, because Arab public opinion is still on his side, and anyone who would try to attack him from the rear will be considered a traitor to Arab case.

Touching upon the position of Lebanon in relation to the future Greater Syria, Geylani said that, according to the general opinion of the majority of the Bolsheviks, including Abdullah himself, Lebanon should remain independent outside Greater Syria, since in Lebanon such an environment is needed so that Christians do not feel fear from the Muslim sides did not seek the protection of the Christian state or would not create a pretext for the intervention of the Western European powers in Lebanese affairs.

Note: Geylani's message deserves serious attention, for in many points it corresponds to the course of the current events related to the resolution of the Palestinian question.

Messenger D Malt

WUA RF. F. 0106. Op. 7.P. 8.D. 7.L. 102-105a