The decision announced several days ago by King Hussein of Jordan to convoke an Arab states “summit meeting” in the Jordanian-held Old City of Jerusalem is a phase in the fight for Arab supremacy between young Hussein, United Arab Republic President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Haj Amin el-Husseini, ex-Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, according to the press here.
King Hussein is anxious to show both Nasser and the Grand Mufti that he is “master of his own house” and that the West bank of the Jordan, now under his jurisdiction, will remain part of Jordan, the Times declares in a dispatch today from Beirut.
According to the newspaper, the resumption of diplomatic relations between Jordan and the UAR was agreed to by King Hussein in response to pressure from the State Department in Washington which is anxious to show Arab support of Nasser as “the bulwark against Communism” in the Middle East. King Hussein, however, is desirous also to show that neither Nasser nor the ex-Grand Mufti can use his area for intrigues.
To demonstrate his own interest in the Arab refugee rehabilitation plan proposed by United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, King Hussein opposes Nasser’s plan for organizing the Arab refugees along lines of Egyptian National Union, and also opposes the former Grand Mufti’s dreams of establishing a “Palestine Government,” the Times states
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