State Dept. Denies Responsibility for British Flights over Israel

A State Department spokesman today denied a London Daily Telegraph report that the U.S. Government was responsible for the British reconnaissance flight last week in the course of which Israeli forces downed five R.A.F. planes. He added that a British Foreign Office statement accepting full responsibility for Britain was correct.

The spokesman pointed out that the Department was “naturally concerned” over reports of incursions into Egyptian territory by Israeli forces. He said the first information was furnished by the British and subsequently confirmed by reports received from Israeli and Egyptian officials. The spokesman added that the State Department had sever asked the British Government for Information regarding Israeli troop movements, although it has asked Israeli and Egyptian authorities for such information.

U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie, in a telegram to the Washington Post which the newspaper published today in a review of the British-Israeli conflict, denied that U.N. observers had asked Britain to carry out any reconnaissance in the Israel Egyptian border region. Replying to a wire from the Post which informed him of a British report to that effect, Lie said; “Information suggested your telegram to effect that British planes were carrying out reconnaissance on behalf United Nations observers incorrect.”