— Hazan Nuseibeh, the Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations, has warned that Israel’s decision to proceed with the construction of a 67 mile-long canal to link the Mediterranean with the Dead Sea will have “far-reaching political, economic, sociological, agricultural and military” consequences for the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, the rights of the Palestinians and the entire Middle East region.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, which was circulated here yesterday, the Jordanian envoy charged that the proposed canal is an “aggression” by Israel.
He said that, among other things, the project will “inundate ancient Christian monasteries and holy places along the banks of the river Jordan in addition to inundating at whim the entire region of the Jordan valley by raising the water level of the Dead Sea to a height which would breach its banks and inundate the irrigated area in the Jordan valley and the tourist resorts as well as the vast industrial chemical projects which are nearing completion along the southern tip of the Dead Sea.”
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