State Department sources said today that Israel and Egypt have been urged to subscribe to the American-British-Soviet ban on nuclear weapons testing as part of the overall policy of the United States, and not because the nuclear potential of the two countries is being taken seriously.
There is no current evidence to Justify either Israeli or Egyptian fears of nuclear attack from the other, it was stressed. It was emphasized that, in the official American view, neither of the two countries is within sight of nuclear arms capability, although the United States desires abandonment of any such objectives in the Middle East.
(Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced last night in Cairo that his government would adhere to the nuclear test ban treaty initialed in Moscow last week by the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. At the same time, it was reported in London that Egypt is now operating “at least one plant full time producing poison gas.”)
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.