Jordan Seeking Security Council Meeting on Israeli Practices in East Jerusalem

Israeli sources confirmed today published reports that Jordan will probably ask for a Sept. 7 Security Council meeting on Israeli practices in East Jerusalem. One Israeli diplomat said such a meeting was “very probable” and was expected by his delegation. As of this afternoon, however, Jordan had not requested a meeting. Such a request by her has been a possibility for several months, but was first dropped during King Hussein’s troubles with the Palestinian terrorists and was later put aside pending the completion of Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco’s mission to Israel. A United Nations spokesman said today that no Israeli or Arab leaders had indicated yet their intention to attend the General Assembly, which opens Sept. 21, but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned that Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban will probably be making his usual appearance at that international gathering. In the interim, Israeli diplomat will confer on the Jerusalem issue with the delegations of the 10 nations of the 15-member Security Council with which it has relations. One source added that it would make “not much difference,” to Israel who is President of the Council next month, as far as that unit’s consideration of Jerusalem is concerned. The seat will be filled by Ambassador Senjin Tsuruoka of Japan. Regarding radio reports that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat will attend the Assembly, a UN spokesman said Sadat had not yet officially indicated such an intention.

In another development, Syria has circulated a protest against “two recent official Zionist-Israeli statements which add a new proof, if a new one is needed, to the already existing scores of proofs about Israeli inherent expansionism and annexationist policy.” In a letter to Secretary General Thant, Ambassador George J. Tomeh referred to articles in the JTA Daily News Bulletins of Aug. 19 and 20. The first, from Tel Aviv, quoted Meir Shamir, the outgoing director of the Jewish Agency’s Hill Settlement Department, as forecasting permanent Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights and an Israeli population there of 15-20000 within seven years. The second story, also from Tel Aviv, reported the speech by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in which he called on Israel to regard herself as the “permanent” government in the occupied territories. Dr. Tomeh wrote Thant: “A subtle hypocrite and a brazen aggressor, a preacher of law and a master of lawlessness, an expert in provocation and unequalled in deceit, these have always been and remain some typical characteristics of the Israeli government and world Zionism.”