The efforts of King Hussein of Jordan to create an image of Arab “moderation,” during his current tour of Western capitals has been booby trapped by the Egyptian call for a Security Council meeting on Israel’s refusal to withdraw from occupied territories, officials sources here indicated today.
Noting that one of the draft resolutions before the Council, co-sponsored by India, Mali and Nigeria, follows the “Arab-Soviet line,” these sources suggested that President Nasser of Egypt called a halt to Hussein’s efforts to reach an agreement with the United States when it appeared such an agreement was near fruition.
The king’s “moderate” public views also appeared here to be offset by recurring raids from Jordanian territory, such as the one yesterday near Hebron, in the west bank area, where seven Arab intruders were killed in an hour-long battle with an Israeli army patrol. There were no Israeli casualties.
The Israeli army spokesman reported that the intruders carried sub-machine-gun, grenades and mines of the type usually carried by Syrian-trained saboteurs. Israel has charged that such marauders are receiving help and bases in Jordan for their raids into Israeli territory. Earlier in the day, seven Israeli soldiers were injured when their command car detonated a mine just west of the Jordan River. in the Beisan Valley.
A possible American-Jordanian agreement, the official sources declared, could have created an image of the Americans being “angels of peace,” and that the Soviet Union therefore acted, through Egypt, to forestall such an agreement. The view here was that the Jordanian monarch had been authorized by Nasser to talk “reasonably” as he has to some degree in several speeches and statements in Washington, where he is now meeting with United States officials – but not to make any practical proposals.
The calculation here was that voting on the three-power and United States resolutions would result in a deadlock. The three-power resolution was expected to get no more than eight votes, one short of the required nine for adoption. The issue would then be returned to the General Assembly.
The Israel Cabinet met again today, in a continuation of last night’s session to consider fresh information received from New York. While the Cabinet has not issued a communique on its deliberations, it was understood that its basic evaluation had not changed.
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.
