Moshe Dayan, former Israel Chief of Staff and now its Minister of Agriculture, asserted vigorously here today that there was no truth in charges by President Nasser of the United Arab Republic that Israel was mobilizing its troops.
General Dayan flatly denied that Israel was contemplating any attack on the United Arab Republic, as Nasser charged in a speech in Damascus yesterday. Gen. Dayan said he had no idea what Nasser’s purpose was in making such charges at the present time or what Nasser hoped to gain by making them.
The Israeli minister said that reinforcement of Israel’s military strength was a factor for peace in the Middle East “because the sooner the Arabs realized that Israel is a permanent factor in the Middle East, the sooner they will come to terms with it.”
He expressed his belief that Israel would eventually be living on peaceful terms with the Arabs, but added that it would undoubtedly take a long time to reach this condition. He contended that if the United Nations had acted firmly about the Syrian border incidents–in which there were clashes in demilitarized zones–the difficulties would have been settled a long time ago.
Shimon Peres, Deputy Defense Minister of Israel, who came to Paris with Gen. Dayan, has been meeting with French officials on purchases of arms for Israel.
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