Premier Kassem of Iraq threatened today to “liberate Palestine from the Jewish yoke” with Iraqi troops. He issued the threat in an interview with the Tunis daily, Al Thawra, warning that “our dear Palestine, beloved to all Arabs and Moslems, will be liberated only by the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi people.”
He asserted that Egypt and Jordan had taken no action against Israel “in spite of their 30,000,000 inhabitants.” He said it would be the Iraqi people alone and unaided who would “chase out the criminal Jews now in power.”
Simultaneously the Cairo radio announced the United Arab Republic plans a campaign to close the Gulf of Akaba to Israeli commerce. The broadcast said the UAR delegate has been instructed to raise the issue in the United Nations legal committee. He was described as working in harmony with representatives of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states.
The broadcast said the Arab drive on the Akaba gulf will be directed not only against Israel but against all states trading with Israel via the gulf.
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