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Jordan Implies U.s.arms Will Be Used Against Israel, Not Syria

September 11, 1957
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Jordanian Foreign Minister Samir Rifai said today that no Arab nation had anything to fear from Jordan’s new U.S. arms and that Jordan considered Israel by far its greatest threat, it was reported from Amman. “Any allegation that we brought the arms for use against our own people is without foundation,” the Jordanian Minister stated.

The Foreign Minister said the United Nations Emergency Force unit at the entrance to the Gulf of Akaba had been there longer than necessary. “There is no reason they should stay there any longer,” he added. He said Jordan does not “feel justified at all in interfering in the internal affairs of Syria.”

At the same time, Col. Abdul Serraj, Syrian army strongman, today charged that the United States wants to combat Communism and let the Arabs forget the danger of Israel but “we want to combat Israel first. ” Syrian President Kuwatly similarly was reported to have told the press that “there’s only one danger that threatens our great Arab nation and that is Zionist Israel. We shall show the world that the fate of Israel is in our hands.”

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