Another indication that Arab countries refuse to cooperate peacefully with Israel in the Near East was seen today in the announcement by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of two identical meetings to be held on Cyprus to study soil and water conservation. The Arab states have been invited to one and Israel to the other.
The first meeting will convene April 15 and invitations have been extended to the Governments of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, Iran, and Ethiopia. When the first, predominantly Arab, meeting terminates, a second session will begin with Israel invited along with France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Turkey and Yugoslavia. Israel stressed during the fifth session of the F.A.O. conference in Washington late last year that it desired cooperation with its Arab neighbors in the direction of peace and the goals of the F.A.O.
Explaining the duplication of meetings, Sir Herbert Broadley, Acting Director-General of F.A.O., said: “It was necossary to divide the number of people invited to the Cyprus meeting into two groups. There was no thought of discrimination against my country. It seemed a good plan in view of the problems of different countries.”
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