Even as Sadat was delivering his speech, rumblings increased in Jordan over alleged Egyptian complicity in the assassination of Premier Wafsi el Tal who was gunned down by Palestinian terrorists outside of his Cairo hotel on Nov. 28. El Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla organization, claimed yesterday in Beirut that the Sadat regime had known about and approved the planned assassination of Tal by members of the “Black September” terrorist group which Fatah directs.
El Fatah charged that at the last minute Cairo ranged and arrested the four assassins who allegedly had been promised safe conduct to their base. The El Fatah allegations were ignored at first by Amman. Last night, however, the full version of the charges against Egypt was repeated on Jordanian radio and television broadcasts in Arabic and other languages. There was no official comment from Amman but it appeared that any Egyptian move toward war at this time would not have the desired effect of rallying the Arab world behind Cairo.
A communique issued after Sadat’s latest speech said only that the Central Committee had decided on “proper measures” against Israel. The communique stressed that the measures would be contingent on an overall military evaluation to be made. While diplomatic circles here did not rule out the possibility of limited Egyptian operations in the Suez Canal zone, they pointed out that Egyptian Army commanders themselves have admitted that they cannot hope for a military victory over Israel. Egypt will not risk military action at a time when it would not have the desired political effects because world attention is focused elsewhere, they said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
