United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and leaders of the Israel Government including Premier David Ben Gurion and Foreign Minister Golda Meir discussed today the full-range of Israel-Jordan armistice problems with particular reference to the Jordanian refusal to permit a convoy to move a quantity of gasoline through the Arab lines to Mt. Scopus, an Israel-held enclave outside Jerusalem.
Today’s discussions were held with a full complement of advisors on both sides. Tomorrow the two diplomats will meet alone for a private talks, after which their advisors may be called on for further talks.
Present today beside Mr. Ben Gurion and Mrs. Meir were Army Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, Foreign Ministry director Walter Eytan and Foreign Ministry department head Joseph Tekoah, who deals with armistice affairs. Mr. Hammarskjold was flanked by Acting Chief of Staff Col. Byron V. Leary of the UN Truce Supervision Organization and political advisor Henri Vigier. He also had several advisors with him from UN headquarters in New York.
After today’s three-hour meeting, a joint communique declared that Messrs. Ben Gurion and Hammarskjold held ‘discussions (which) extended over the main current of problems affecting the Israel-Jordan armistice situation.” The talks covered the Mt. Scopus situation, particularly Jordan’s refusal to allow a convoy to the Israeli-held enclave with a supply of gasoline for electric generators, and implementation of the general armistice compact between the two states.
SETTLEMENT OF MT. SCOPUS DISPUTE EXPECTED; OPTIMISM SEEN
One of the participants in the meeting said afterwards that the “situation was now not too bad.” The announcement of tomorrow’s private meeting was viewed here as an indication that the parties hope that free, non-diplomatic talk will help bare the minimum positions of each. Meanwhile, Mr. Hammarskjold is expected to have communicated with Jordan late today and may have a reaction by tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, in a move which may foreshadow a settlement of the Mt. Scopus dispute, the Israeli authorities were today readying a convoy for movement to the Hadassah hospital-Hebrew University grounds on the height tomorrow. This is the day of the next regular fortnightly convoy. It is understood that the motor caravan will carry twice the usual amount of gasoline to make up for the fuel banned two weeks ago.
Mr. Hammarskjold was scheduled to be the guest of honor tonight at a reception tendered by Mrs. Meir. The Foreign Minister, who left the conference early today apparently due to weakness resulting from wounds suffered in a madman’s grenade attack in Parliament last month, is expected to have an informal parley with the Secretary General during dinner.
Extraordinary security precautions were taken in the vicinity of the Premier’s office today during the conference. Mr. Hammarskjold’s two bodyguards sat in the antechamber while scores of uniformed plainclothes policemen patrolled the street outside.
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