THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 8 NOVEMBER 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006466892
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: November 8, 1976

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The President's Daily Brief
November 8, 1976
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E 0 11652
exemption category 5B(1).(2).(3)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
November 8, 1976
Table of Contents
Egypt: The new Egyptian cabinet likely to be named today may
include new ministers of finance and economy; Foreign Min-
ister Fahmi and War Minister Gamasy probably will remain.
(Page 1)
Lebanon: President Sarkis yesterday appealed to all combatants
to accept the supervision of Arab League peace-keeping
troops. Christian, Muslim, and Palestinian leaders still
object to his projected plans for the force. (Page 2)
China-USSR: A Chinese message to the USSR commemorating the
59th anniversary of the Russian Revolution is essentially
the same as the one broadcast last year and contains no
new initiatives. (Page 4)
Notes: China; USSR-Japan; EC-UK (Pages 5 and 6)
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
EGYPT: The new Egyp-
tian cabinet is Likely
to be named today.
Nearly complete returns
from the parliamentary
election?held initially
on October 28 with a
runoff last Thursday--
give the pro-government
organization within the
Arab Socialist Union
275 of the Assembly's
348 elected seats.
President Sadat on Saturday called
for the formation of a new cabinet
following receipt of parliamen-
tary election returns giving the 25X1
pro-government slate a strong
majority. Sadat is likely to re-
place the present ministers of
finance and economy
Foreign Minister Fahmi and War
Minister Gamasy probably will re-
tain their portfolios
Although the ASU is Egypt's only
legal political party, candidates
were permitted this year for the
first time to form opposition
groups within the party and to
run openly on opposition platforms
Members of the ASU's leftist or-
ganization took only two seats;
the rightist, 12. Independents
running outside the sponsorship
of any ASU group won 48 seats.
Many are known leftists.
The new Assembly may prove to be
less manipulable than its prede-
cessors. It is not likely, how-
ever, to present any serious chal-
lenge to government policies.
* * *
--continued
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LEBANON: President
Sarkis yesterday ap-
pealed to all combat-
ants to accept the
supervision of Arab
League peace-keeping
troops.
Although Christian,
Muslim, and Palestin-
ian leaders profess
willingness to cooper-
ate with Sarkis, they
continue to raise ob-
jections to his pro-
jected plans for using
the Arab security
force.
Sarkis gave no details on how he
intends to use the League force,
what its composition will be, or
when it will be deployed. He re-
cently warned that he miaht
proceed without the agreement of
all disputants, and he may have
now decided that he can no longer
afford to delay implementing the
cease-fire.
Although his appeal seemed intended
mainly to reassure Christians and
Muslims that he would have direct
control over the League troops, it
also contained an indirect warn-
ing that failure to cooperate with
his peace-keeping efforts would
prolong the presence of foreign
troops in Lebanon.
In addition, Sarkis emphasized
that resolution of Lebanon's con-
flict is directly linked to prog-
ress in solving the broader Mid-
dle East dispute and that he also
must consider his full responsi-
bility to the Arab world.
Christian extremist Camille Shamun
said on Saturday that the Pales-
tinians had failed to comply with
the provisions of the Riyadh agree-
ment that called for them to with-
draw from their positions. He
indicated that the Arab security
force should enforce those with-
drawals before trying to enter
areas of Christian control.
Shamun's son also announced that
Christians will not hand their
weapons over to Arab League troops.
--continued
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MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
BEIRUT
Beirut
lnternation
Airport
Sidon
Tyre
620560 10-76
DAMASCUS
IA
MILES 20
0 KILOMETERS 20
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Syria announced on Fri-
day that it was placing
its troops in Lebanon
at Sarkis' disposal as
members of the Arab
League force.
The more moderate Phalangist Chris-
tians are apparently willing to
accept units of the Arab security
force in Christian areas but have
specified that the troops must be
withdrawn immediately should "in-
cidents" occur.
The Palestinians are still trying
to convince Lebanese President
Sarkis to appoint a sympathetic
non-Lebanese Arab as head of the
Arab security force, and have
asked the Syrians to intervene on
their behalf in this matter.
No effort has yet been made, how-
ever, to use the security forces
to implement the Riyadh agreement.
The Christians apparently believe
that such a move is imminent and
that the troops will move from
Jazzin to Sidon, open the roads
from Sidon to Beirut and from
Alayh to the airport, and take up
positions along Beirut's confron-
tation line.
There was heavy shelling and snip-
ing in Beirut and its suburbs over
the weekend. The rest of the
country was relatively quiet, al-
though the southern border town
of Bint Jubayl was still being
shelled by the Christians.
--continued
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
CHINA-USSR: A Chinese
message to the USSR
commemorating the 59th
anniversary of the Rus-
sian Revolution is es-
sentially the same as
the one broadcast last
year and contains no
new initiatives.
The government-to-government mes-
sage reaffirmed China's standard
position that disagreement over
issues should not interfere with
normal relations. Unlike last
year's message, the current one
does not refer specifically to
continuing negotiations over dis-
puted border areas.
In Moscow, Peking, and elsewhere,
Chinese officials attended Soviet
receptions honoring the revolu-
tion. The Chinese representatives
at the Peking gathering were low-
level officials, the same as in
previous years.
China's top diplomat in Moscow
sat through the Kremlin's annual
reception for the first time in
several years. The leading So-
viet speaker, in commenting on
Sino-Soviet relations, did not in-
clude the sharp criticism of China
that prompted walkouts by Chinese
envoys in the past.
In his speech yesterday at the
anniversary parade in Moscow, So-
viet Defense Minister Ustinov--un-
like the late defense minister
Grechko last year--avoided mention
of China.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Photography of Tang-shan,
' China shows the devasta-
tion caused by the earth-
quakes on July 28 and the
reconstruction that has
occurred since then.
The USSR and Japan re-
portedly will sign agree-
ments today regarding
the return of the MIG-25
flown to Japan by a So-
viet defector in Septem-
ber.
EC
UK
NOTES
The area shown is south-central
Tang-shan. The reconstructed
housing, like that destroyed, is
single-story but is probably tem-
porary and was put up quickly to
get the surviving populace under
shelter.
According to the US defense at-
tache in Tokyo, a Soviet freighter
is to arrive at the port of
Hitachi on Sunday to pick up the
aircraft. The return of the MIG-
25 will remove a major irritant
in Soviet-Japanese relations, and
both countries seem anxious to
put the problem behind them.
The USSR probably will go ahead
with two planned Soviet ministe-
rial-level visits to Japan dealing
with economic matters that it had
threatened to postpone. With its
political standing in Japan so
low, the USSR can ill afford any
setbacks in Soviet-Japanese eco-
nomic cooperation.
EC officials believe the Community
does not have adequate resources
to launch a major rescue operation
on its own and note that only West
Germany, and perhaps the Nether-
lands, could contribute to such an
effort. The finance ministers may
approve EC assumption of Britain's
share of the EC credit granted
Italy in 1974.
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Any Community effort to rescue the
pound would have to be part of a
much larger operation involving
the US and Japan
West German
Finance Minister Apel told the US?,
ambassador this week that he con-
siders Britain's problems more seri-
ous than Italy's and believes inter-
national action should be taken to
assist the UK before Christmas.
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