Jordan complained to the United Nations today against the “new Israeli threats” voiced by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in a speech to the Knesset earlier this week. The speech, the Jordanians said, warned “Israel would take military action against the East Bank of Jordan and that Jordan must face the consequences.” The Jordanian letter, signed by Muhammad H. El-Farra, head of e Jordanian delegation, declared that “the Government of Jordan rejects the Israeli Prime Minister’s warning to Jordan which shows utter contempt to world public opinion and is a direct defiance to the Security Council resolution of 24 March, 1968 that condemned Israel for its military action against Jordan.” The letter warned the Council that “a new Israeli attack would lead to further deterioration” of the situation and to “a renewed armed conflict in the area of wider intensify and Israel alone will bear the full responsibility of its utter disregard and breach of security and peace in the Middle East.”
The letter disclaimed any Jordanian responsibility for the security of Israeli forces in Israel occupied territory and asserted that the incidents of which Israel had complained were the result of the refusal of the Arab population to accept foreign military occupation. It asserted that the answer “to these acts of national resistance is not the renewal of Israeli acts of aggression against the citizens of Jordan but a genuine cooperation” with the Jarring mission and the implementation of the Council’s Nov. 22 resolution. Israel, the Jordanian letter asserted, “has failed to show a positive and constructive attitude in this regard.”
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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.