Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plan a thorough-going investigation of the Administration’s Middle East policies preceding and following the British-French-Israel actions in Egypt, it was learned today.
Senator Hubert Humphrey, member of the committee, disclosed yesterday in a television interview that he had proposed such an investigation. He said there should be a “sensible, systematic interrogation” into events in the Middle East, the results of which should be used in implementing an effective policy there.
The Minnesota Senator sharply criticized the Eisenhower Administration policies in the Middle East. He said it had not been “persistently dedicated” to trying to get the Arab nations and Israel to settle their differences peaceably. He stressed President Eisenhower’s great personal influence and said this should be exerted now to bring the Middle East nations into a peace conference.
Sen. Humphrey warned against permitting a reversal of the Middle East situation to what it was before the Anglo-French-Israel actions and stressed the need for positive action now when American prestige was high in the Arab world. He called for a program of extensive economic aid, with priority to the Jordan River development project, and a guarantee against aggression for all the nations involved.
“The sooner we make it clear to Mr. Nasser and to all the other states in the area that Israel is here to stay and that we are against aggression from any source, the better,” he said.
ARMSTRONG TO STUDY U.S. AID MEASURES’ IN MIDDLE EAST
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced today that Hamilton Fish Armstrong will make an on-the-spot survey of the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid programs in Israel, Lebanon-Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Armstrong is editor of the publication, “Foreign Affairs.” Mr. Armstrong, chosen to survey the six Middle East countries, is one among nine individuals who collectively will survey most of the countries benefiting from U.S. aid programs.
A Senate foreign relations spokesman said there was no particular significance to the fact that. Egypt had been excluded from the list of Middle East countries to be surveyed.
The committee also announced that it has contracts with private organizations for 10 major research projects in connection with its inquiry into the effectiveness of U.S. overseas aid programs.
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