The Arab League’s Supreme Defense Council, which has just concluded a series of meetings at Cairo, has decided to “use force to prevent Israel’s exploitation of the Jordan River for irrigation of the Negev Desert, ” according to the Arab press, received here today. The Supreme Defense Council decided to confer again in two months to pick a “supreme commander” for an Arab joint command.
Information reaching here from the Arab states indicates also that the Arab heads of state plan on giving U.S. President John F. Kennedy evasive answers in response to his recent letters to the Arab rulers. On the other hand, it is planned by the Arab rulers to pinpoint the Jordan River issue, accusing Israel of an “act of aggression” in connection with its Jordan River water project. Some of the Arab newspapers have proposed that President Kennedy be subjected to “a test in regard to his good will, to find out whether he respects Arab rights and Arab League resolutions.”
(Dispatches received in London today reported that the Arab League Economic Council, which has just opened at Damascus, has on its agenda an item dealing with “the necessity of the creation of Arab economic unity prior to establishment of political unity.)
(The Times of London reported today that Tass, the Soviet Government news agency, has reported an article in Pravda, organ of the Communist Party of the USSR emphasizing that the Soviet Union “values its friendship with the United Arab Republic and wants to develop that friendship and strengthen it further.”)
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.
