Ambassador Abba Eban, Israel’s delegation chief, firmly asserted today that Israel intends to go after armaments in the U.S. and that Israel was correct in every respect when it attacked the Egyptian invaders in the El Auja demilitarized zone. He declared at a press conference held immediately after his return from conferences in Paris and Geneva that he will present a list of arms needed by Israel to the United States Government very soon, perhaps in a matter of days.
The situation is extremely urgent, he stated, because with its new arms from Eastern Europe “Egypt will be in a position within a matter of months to carry out its aggressive intentions against Israel.” Mr. Eban confirmed previous reports that, as a result of the Geneva talks, the United States had promised “sympathetic consideration of Israel’s arms needs.”
The Israel Government does not plan at present to bring the current Middle East situation up for discussion “before any organ of the United Nations,” Mr. Eban said. Thus far, Egypt has also refrained from calling for a meeting of the Security Council. However, a Council meeting could be called on the initiative of any of its eleven members or at the behest of the Secretary General, and the holding of such a meeting, perhaps on a few hours’ notice, was not ruled out.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.