Another Arab state currently at odds on other major issues with Egypt’s dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, lined up firmly here today behind Nasser’s anti-Israel blockade of the Suez Canal.
Hashim Jawad, Foreign Minister of Iraq, addressed the General Assembly this morning and declared on behalf of his country that “the inherent right of self-preservation and the recurrent acts of Israeli aggression of which the 1956 attack was the most flagrant example, fully justified the stand taken by the United Arab Republic in relation to the question of passage through the Suez Canal.”
The Suez Canal question, said Mr. Jawad, “cannot be considered in isolation from the Palestine problem. Israel has been, and remains, the Trojan Horse of imperialism,” he declared.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry chief seemed somewhat more moderate in his anti-Israel attacks than the Jordanian and Saudi Arabian representatives who addressed the Assembly last week. However, he was just as insistent as were the other Arab spokesmen that Egypt had the “right” to bar Israeli shipping and goods from the Suez Canal.
U Chan Tun Ung, Burma’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, appealed to the Arab states and Israel “to intensify their efforts to find ways and means to solve their differences.” Addressing the General Assembly on foreign affairs, the Burmese statesman said: “My delegation is happy to note that the explosive situation which existed in the Middle East during the last year did not result in any major eruption and that stability has been restored to the affected areas. We would once again appeal to both our Arab and Israeli friends to intensify their efforts to find ways and means to solve their differences.”
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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.
