Nasser’s ‘recent Successes’ in Fight Against Israel Cited in Cairo

The delegates from eight of the ten states in the Arab League now meeting in Cairo, today heard a report on the “recent successes” of President Nasser of the United Arab Republic in his campaign against Israel and in other fields, a cable from the Egyptian capital reported. Iraq and Tunisia are boycotting the Cairo meeting because of their quarrels with Nasser.

Nasser’s “victories” cited to the delegates included the World Bank Loan for the improvement of the Suez Canal; renewal of diplomatic relations between the UAR and Britain; the success of the anti-Israel economic boycott, with particular reference to the withdrawal of Reggie Renault from assembly operations in Israel and of Air France from a proposed trans-Atlantic traffic-sharing agreement with El Al National Airlines; the “queue of Western Government delegations” seeking to lend money to the UAR, and the “final victory” over the Inge Toft issue.

The principal item on the agenda is the “Palestine issue,” a thorny problem because of the conflicting interests of the UAR, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. In London the belief exists that some unified viewpoint will be developed among the Arab League delegates because of the special urgency conferred on the problem by Israel’s plans to tap waters of the Jordan River for irrigation of the Negev.

The Arab states must seek to coordinate their counter-measures–an effort made necessary by the fact that Lebanon did not consult Jordan before announcing plans to divert the Hasbani River, a Jordan River tributary, as a counter to Israel’s Jordan River plans. Such a diversion by Lebanon, it developed, would deprive not only Israel, but also Jordan, of much of the Jordan River waters and doom Jordan’s chances to irrigate its parched territory.