Israeli authorities weighed during the week-end the advisability of partial mobilization of the nation’s military reserves as it became known that elements of the Iraqi Air Force have reached Syria. A Damascus broadcast said that the Iraqi force in Syria consists of eight fighter planes and a number of anti-aircraft guns with their crews.
A Foreign Office spokesman indicated here last night that Israel is highly disappointed over the resolution adopted on Friday by the U.N. Security Council ordering the Israel Government to discontinue the drainage of the swamps in the demilitarized zone of the Huleh area. “The resolution,” he said, ”represents a surrender to threats and places a premium on aggression. It is liable to serve as an encouragement for further adventures of a kind which have paid such handsome dividends.
”The reclamation of the Huleh swamps,” the spokesman continued, ”is Israel’s absolute right and vital task. The government is determined to bring the project to a successful conclusion despite all obstacles and with all means at its disposal.” The spokesman stated that the Israel Government has not as yet received the official order from the Security Council to halt work in the Huleh.
SHARETT WARNS SYRIA; SAYS ISRAEL MUST BE ALERT; CONFERS WITH U.N. CHIEF
Earlier, Foreign Minister and Acting Premier Moshe Sharett declared: ”The aircraft and artillery sent into Syria by Iraq, accompanied by reports of the movement of other Iraqi troops in the same direction, raise extremely serious issues. ”The armistice agreement was signed with Syria, as such, not with a Syria whose back door is open to the free flow of Iraqi reinforcements. The Iraqi forces now entering Syria with the intention to attack or threaten Israel constitute a flagrant violation of the armistice agreement with Syria. The course of developments compels a state of high alertness for Israel.”
(The New York Times today reported from Damascus that the Arab League Council announced yesterday that a central office for a boycott of trade with Israel, with branch offices in all Arab countries, would be established at Damascus. Syrian Premier Khaled el Azam was reported to have told correspondents that no one in the Arab world would conclude a peace with Israel, or even think of it.”)
Maj. Gen. William E. Riley, chief of Staff of the United Nations truce supervision organization, arrived at Lydda International Airport this week-end and immediately proceeded to Tel Aviv to see Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. Brig. Yigal Yadir, Israel Army Chief of Staff, and Col. Makleff, Deputy Chief of Staff, were present at the meeting.
A communique issued later said that the meeting was devoted to a general review of the situation in the north ”which had deteriorated during Gen. Riley’s absence from the Middle East. Meanwhile, according to information here, Syrian forces beyond the border and in the demilitarized zone were fortifying their positions with black basalt stone found in the area.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
