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If one were to believe the press reports (chiefly emanating from Washington) about "Irangate", the instigation for the whole affair might well have originated in Saudi Arabia. Saudi involvement somewhere along the line is undoubtedly the case, but amid all the mudslinging and blame-throwing in Washington, Saudi Arabia is definitely being forced to carry a quite unwarranted burden of responsibility.

During the General Assembly sessions of the United Nations in New York the Arab foreign ministers generally and the GCC envoys particularly, were extremely active in their contacts with other delegations and in their high profile representations of regional and overall Arab concerns. The GCC ministers were especially vigorous, and two of their more important side meetings were with the European Community foreign ministers and with the US Secretary of State, George Shultz.

The dispatch of Saudi Arabian oil minister Hisham Nazer by Opec to visit Egypt, Norway and the USSR to win support for the Organisation's oil price and production policy was a shrewd - and successful - move by the oil producers' cartel. The Saudi minister was ostensibly wearing his Opec hat and speaking solely on Opec's behalf; nothing was said either by Opec or by Saudi Arabia - about the possible national political implications of his three-day sojourn in Moscow.

Kuwait's Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister, Shaikh Sabah al Ahmad, set off at the end of last month on a tour of the other member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The avowed reason for the trip, according to the official Kuwaiti news agency, was to explain "the dangerous situation in the Arab Gulf region, caused by the continuation of the Iran-Iraq war that is threatening the freedom and safety of navigation in the territorial waters of the Gulf". Since every member state of the GCC has officially, openly and frequently pronounced on the grave dangers of the Iran-Iraq war and the GCC collectively makes constant reference to the same subject, Shaikh Sabah's tour could have appeared, in its announced purpose, to have been quite unnecessary. The official news agency statement was nothing more than a bit of public relations Dim-flam, designed to avoid giving a more accurate account for Shaikh Sabah's travels.

King Fahd performed a valuable service when he brokered the recent meeting between President Chadli Benjedid of Algeria and King Hassan of Morocco. The two North African countries have been on bad terms with each other over various issues for several years, and to have brought the two leaders together was a creditable political achievement by the Saudi monarch. However, the mere fact of their meeting did not produce solutions to any or all of their joint problems and, since then, there has been no suggestion that any further negotiations are in progress on matters of dispute.

Social corruption has become a prevalent obsession of the Saudi authorities. Scarcely a speech or an address goes by from Interior Minister, Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, or his deputy, Prince Ahmed, without a warning on the subject of narcotics, AIDS, foreign travel or the moral protection of youth. A survey of official statements and press editorials reveals a growing concern with the moral and physical health of the kingdom's population.

There was no official comment from Saudi Arabia on the PLO's reunification congress in Algiers last month. This looks rather odd at first sight, given the kingdom's constant reassertion of its interest in rebuilding and maintaining Arab unity. What deeply disturbs the Saudis, however, is the growing possibility that estrangement of the PLO moderates from Egypt and Jordan will create new rifts in the Arab world - and dash all hopes of forming a united front at the long-promised forthcoming Arab summit conference.

More than two million pilgrims are expected to come to Saudi Arabia to take part in this year's Haj, currently in progress. A considerable government administrative effort is under way to provide pilgrims with essential services and facilities. As well as the 22m one-litre plastic packs of iced drinking water provided by the government for distribution at the holy sites, the authorities have also mounted substantial security precautions against any political disruption of the ceremonies.

THE VARIOUS AND DIFFERENT threads of Inter-Arab and Arab international policies are in a tangled and complex web of conflicting views and opposing ideas. The Arab Heads of State, at their summit meeting in Morocco, were, presumably expected to weave from this confusion a coherent pattern for an agreed and workable joint Arab political position. As we go to press, comes the news of the utter failure of the Fez summit.

NOT EVEN THE PRESENCE of Syria's military might appearing over the Jordanian border could deter King Hussein from holding what became the most important Arab Summit conference of the decade. Held in Amman in the latter days of last month, Arab unity was the password and moot point, darkened only by the shadows cast on the empty seats in the conference room vacated by the representatives of those Arab countries who are determined to assert their authority by ignoring the majority and instigating friction inside the Arab community for their own ends.

CAPTAIN ALI ABDULLAH is a brisk and confident young officer in the Sultanate of Oman's Armed Forces and one of his duties is to deliver a military briefing to invited visitors on the operational role and functions of the Southern Oman Brigade. In the Brigade's headquarters near Sallalah, on Oman's southern coast, Captain Ali stands before a large scale wall map of the Sultanate's western border with the People's Democratic Republic of ,(South) Yemen (PDRY) and points out the main deployment areas of the Southern Oman Brigade - the sharp end of Oman's low key confrontation with the PDRY.

The Reagan administration has announced its intention of allowing the sale of five Boeing airliners to Iraq to go ahead after receiving assurances from Baghdad that the aircraft will not be used for military purposes. The original sale was proposed two years ago, but export approval was held up by the Carter administration because Iraq featured on a US list of "terrorist" countries alongside Libya, Syria and South Yemen.

Rift: The confusions caused by the crises in the Lebanon have spread to Washington, where recent statements by high administration officials have been marked by patent uncertainty and plain contradiction about what is current US policy to Israel.

The US assistant Secretary of State, Richard Murphy, having completed his round of Middle East capitals, returned to Washington bearing a gloomy report on the progress - or rather the lack of it - on gaining support for the American version of a Middle East peace process.

Iran's major land offensive, long promised by Tehran and equally expected by Baghdad, has brought Iranian troops to the Iraqi west bank of the Shatt al Arab waterway - for the first time in the five and a half year old Gulf war. Both sides have made the usual conflicting military claims and the communiques of the two sides are as unreliable as they are categoric. But the impartial cameras of the western intelligence satellites showed that the Iranians have succeeded in establishing themselves in the Iraqi oil port of Al Faw on the river estuary, and threaten to cut the highway between Basra and Kuwait.