The Jordan Government denied emphatically today a report emanating from Damascus that the Jordanians have turned over the Dead Sea potash plant to Israel, at the behest of the British Government.
The Jordan radio station today broadcast a statement by the Jordanian Premier, Samir Pasha el-Rifai, declaring that his government will not conclude a separate peace with Israel despite the fact that Jordan differs in opinions with the Arab League on a number of questions.
United Nations truce chief Gen. William E. Riley today approached both the Israel and Egyptain Governments on the question of the holding of a meeting for the purpose of settling a number of issues beyond the competence of the mixed Israel-Egyptain armistice commissions, it was learned here today from reliable sources. Gen. Riley asked for a meeting on January 15 of a mixed commission to discuss matters of principle. Such a body was provided for in the armistice agreement signed at Rhodes. It is reported that the main subject under discussion will be Israel’s objections to Egypt’s virtual closing of the Suez Canal to Israel-bound shipping.
(The Associated Press reports from Moscow that the Navy newspaper Red Fleet, in the bitterest Soviet editorial attack yet on Israel, charged that the Jewish state was being turned into an American war base. Although the Israel Government is less than three years old, Red Flest charged, it has succeeded in fully subjecting the nation to orders from Washington. The American Ambassador at Tel Aviv is Israel’s real ruler, said the newspaper, and current negotiations for technical aid under President Truman’s “Point Four” program are designed to flood the country with specialists who would dominate its economy.
(Haifa is being made into an American naval base, Lydda into a huge American air base, the Soviet newspaper declared. In addition, highways are being built throughout the nation for military purposes, the editorial asserted. It added that Israel was arranging closest contacts with other countries in the Middle East, such as Greece and Turkey, which “long ago became bases for American aggression.”)
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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.
