Israel Will Insist That British Troops in Transjordan Be Considered Part of Arab Force

The Israeli Government will insist on the inclusion of the British forces in Aqaba in the computation of the total strength to be allowed each side under the Israel-Trans Jordan armistice or their departure from Transjordan territory, Dr. Walter Eytan, Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Office, said today.

The main provision of the armistice now being negotiated on the island of Rhodes, Dr. Eytan explained, is the reduction in the size of the forces both sides will have on their respective armistice lines. In reckoning the size of the forces, he said, Israel will insist that the British be counted in the Trans Jordan total unless they are withdrawn from the country.

(Reuters reported from London today that a Foreign Office spokesman denied that the movement of British troops to Aqaba in January was in violation of U.N. truce resolutions.)

Dr. Eytan expressed the hope that the Israeli-Lebanese armistice agreement would be signed early next week. He stressed that, to date, Israel had not been officially notified of the Syrian agreement to participate in the armistice talks. The Israeli official denied that in talks a Foreign Ministry representative had with the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission at Jerusalem earlier this week agreement had boon reached on any plans. The meeting, he said, was for information only.

Mark Ethridge, American member of the commission, and most of its personnel were to leave Jerusalem today for Beirut in advance of the meeting there next Monday of the Arab states. The other two members of the commission, now in Paris and Ankara, are expected to proceed directly to Beirut for the meeting.

The commission’s sub-committee on the future of Jerusalem yesterday heard Rabbi Meir Berlin, Mizrachi leader, who formerly had supported internationalization of Jerusalem, declare that he now favors inclusion of both the Old City and the modern areas of Jerusalem within the state of Israel.