President Nasser of Egypt said today, in a taped television interview broadcast by CBS, that Egypt continues to renounce the possibility of a peaceful settlement with Israel, will never accept the existence of Israel, and “the only solution is force.” He said that a reckoning with Israel might come in five years, but noted that the Moslems waited 70 years during the Crusade to expel the Christians from Palestine.
Asked by the CBS interviewers about his advocacy of peaceful settlement of world problems and the contradiction between those sentiments and his attitude toward Israel, he said that Israel could be likened only to aggressors who invaded and occupied the State of California. He declared the making of peace requires the existence of two reasonable sides, but cannot be made with aggressors who continue to occupy territory.
The Egyptian leader explained that deferment of action against Israel’s Jordan River water project was due to the fact that Syria was militarily unable to defend itself. He disclosed he had advised Syria to postpone such action until military preparations were completed. He rejected the possibility of a negotiated settlement with Israel, claiming Israel had failed to respect United Nations decisions, and saying the existence of Israel constituted nothing more than “a plot of aggression.”
It was disclosed by Nasser in the course of the interview that the United States is considering a new aid agreement with Egypt, but that no final action has been taken. He justified Egyptian ties with the Soviet bloc, and claimed there was no interference from that source. Assailing President Habib Bourguiba, of Tunisia, Nasser said it was Bourguiba’s intention to attack Egypt in order “to get more aid from the United States.”
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.
