Eban to Discuss Renewed Tensions on Syrian Frontier with Hammarskjold

The Israel Foreign Ministry today instructed Ambassador Abba Eban to take up with United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold the renewed tensions on the Israel-Syrian border when the two statesmen meet tomorrow.

The Foreign Ministry indicated also it expected to receive from its Ambassador a report on the results of Mr. Hammarskjold’s Christmas visit to the Middle East, which included stopovers in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, where he discussed Article Eight of the Israel -Jordan Mixed Armistice Agreement and the Syrian border situation, respectively. Article Eight provides for unimpeded access to the Israel enclave of Mt. Scopus which is within Jordan territory.

While Jordan reportedly told the UN official that it remained unwilling to implement Article Eight, there was understood to have been a more equivocal rejection by Cairo of a proposal to demarcate physically the Israel-Syrian border as one step to prevent border incidents. It was reported that the Nasser regime was making difficulties not about the proposal but rather about the recognized location of the borderline.

During the Hammarskjold-Eban meeting Thursday, the Ambassador was expected to call to Mr. Hammarskjold’s attention three recent Syrian border incidents. These included firing on fishermen in lake Kinneret, shooting at an Israel shepherd and kidnapping two young American tourists 500 meters inside Israel. The tourists were released to the UN after six hours of questioning.

Mr. Eban was expected to point out that while none of the incidents was in the category of the violent Syrian artillery assault early in December on a ring of settlements, the incidents nevertheless were viewed seriously in Jerusalem as proof that the Syrians were unwilling to abandon border hostilities.