A clear-cut statement on the position of the United States Government with regard to the Arab-Israel situation is being demanded by the British Government, it was learned here today. Communications to this effect have been addressed by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden to President Eisenhower and by British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd to U. S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The British Government is also believed to have urged the United States to join in a campaign of economic sanctions against Egypt, unless Premier Nasser immediately halts his attempts to undermine the British position in the Middle East. There is a scarcely concealed fear in the British Foreign Office that Nasser will succeed in his campaign to pull Jordan out of the British orbit and then proceed to work on Iraq, an anchor of the Bagdad Pact.
There is a “let down” feeling here over the statements on the Arab-Israel situation made by Secretary Dulles at his press conference this week. Although the British had hardly been expecting Washington’s endorsement of their plan for dealing with aggression in the Middle East, they had hoped for some indication of support of it, or of the general idea of Western action in the event of an Arab-Israel outbreak.
Observers today contrasted the statement by Henry Cabot Lodge, American delegate at the United Nations, in yesterday’s Security Council debate that the situation in the Middle East had “deteriorated and the world is alarmed at the prospect of warfare in the Near East,” with Mr. Dulles assertion a day before that there is no immediate emergency in the area. Which statement truly reflects American opinion? Is the question being asked here.
Meanwhile, it was reported here today that the Saudi Arabian Government was buying military jet planes from Egypt, which has been obtaining Soviet jet fighters and bombers. One squadron of planes was said to have been received already by the Saudi Arabians and more were reported ordered from the Egyptians.
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