The governments of Britain and France make no secret of the fact that they are pleased with the merger of Jordan and Iraq into a federation. A Foreign Office spokesman said here that this move will help stabilize the situation in the Middle East. He obviously had in mind that the Jordan-Iraqi bloc will serve to counteract the pro-Soviet stand of the Syrian-Egyptian bloc.
In Paris, official circles indicated that the Jordan-Iraqi federation may help to bring about renewed French influence in the Arab world. A Foreign Office spokesman there said that the French Government looks with sympathy on this federation as a check to the ambitions of the Egyptian-Syrian bloc.
Reuter’s news agency, reporting a broadcast this week-end by King Hussein of Jordan on his merging with Iraq, quoted him as referring to Israel as follows: “On this day, we turn our hearts toward Palestine and we promise before God to work as before to achieve our rights, which were stolen by the enemy. We will not lay down our arms until we have achieved our alms.”
(In Washington, the State Department gave the same cautious endorsement this weekend to the Iraq-Jordan union it extended to the United Arab Republic of Syria and Egypt two weeks ago. Lincoln White, the State Department spokesman, said that the United States believed that “closer relationships in the Arab world is a matter for the Arabs themselves to decide.”)
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