A former Common. Market official has revealed that Egypt and Jordan purposely opposed Europe’s bid to help solve the Palestinian refugee problem.
Speaking on a Labor broadcasting organization radio program, Sicco Mansholt implied that Egypt and Jordan’s refusal of Europe’s offer of rehabilitation aid to the Palestinians was a political maneuver to keep the Palestinian problem alive. Mansholt, until recently the Dutch vice-chairman of the Common Market’s “European Committee,” said this knowledge had long been kept a secret behind Common Market walls.
He said the European committee had proposed giving large scale aid in the form, of food and training to help integrate the Palestinians, but Egypt and Jordan turned it down. As for the oil issue, Mansholt called “repulsive” the attempts of many European governments to “obtain a few thousand tons of oil from the Arabs by bowing to their demands.”
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